Transcript

Olaso.
So we will return to the practice of taking the mind as the path, attending very closely to the space of
the mind, and I proposed a kind of a hypothesis recently that the word I was looking for was quantum
foam; very technical term in quantum mechanics but it’s got a nice poetic feel and that is when you’re
attending to the space of the mind you have the sense of it’s just a sheer emptiness, like just nothing,
and then something happens in it or in that vacuity, is there something happening?
[00:00:36] Ah it’s not this appearance versus that appearance more like again, speaking poetically,
nothing strict about this, but more like background radiation, just kind of like a fizz, a foaming, a
shimmering in the space itself which again has that mood of dynamism, mood of pregnancy, mood of
potential, ready to display as an appearance, thought and so forth, or as a dream for that matter. So,
such for the space of the mind.
[1:07] But as we attend more and more closely and we’re spending more hours perhaps, taking the
mind as the path, this is clearly challenging us to attend more closely which means to arouse vividness,
acuity, high resolution, and just overall the fact that we never know what’s coming up, that is from
moment to moment. This is the most unpredictable of all the shamatha methods and from moment to
moment in terms of you don’t know what is coming up next. If you just breathed in you know what’s
coming next (laughter); when you breathe out you hope you know what’s coming next (laughter) but
here you just have no idea what’s coming up next unless you’re controlling in which case if you’re that
then you’re not doing the practice, right?
[01:52] And so the sheer fact of the novelty, the ongoing novelty, the ongoing freshness, the ongoing
unprecedentedness of what’s coming up. Because you never really have repeat performances, just a lot
of similarities perhaps. That braces the mind, it arouses the mind which, such that for some people if
they’re more of the vata nature, of a wind constitution within wind, bile and phlegm, if they tried doing
this while they’re seeking to fall asleep they won’t fall asleep because they have the arousal, arousal,
they can stay awake like hours like that because it just keeps them above the threshold of melting into,
so totally relaxed and they fall asleep. So that’s just the nature of this practice, that it is one that kind of
is bracing, and it’s fine, it’s fine to attend more closely with higher definition, higher resolution, see the
subtleties, see not only thoughts but thoughts that are about to emerge and never quite break the
surface, and then subside back into it; Tsongkhapa spoke of that and it certainly is true.
[2:54] But here’s the point, and it’s a familiar refrain and I’m going to say it again, the higher your
pyramid you better have the stronger the base, and that is it’s fine to have increasing clarity, clarity, but
if you’re not simultaneously, not just - oh I’m relaxed, I’m relaxed, but actually deepening the sense of
relaxation, right? Then you will find yourself top heavy and then you’ll start getting a little bit of a
buzz, a bit of a tension, a bit of hyper, a bit of feeling wired. And then having, and then you may have
pressure, heart starting built up in the head, or in the face, you have more insomnia, feeling a bit
restless, ill at ease and so forth, and that’s all just all a very clear indication - you’re top heavy; you
have an upside down pyramid, it’s going to fall over.
[3:45] So what I’d like to do for this session without much further ado is go back and it’ll be a silent
session so it’ll be at your leisure for you to determine how you want to partition the session, but I
would say more or less the first half, it could be more or less, more or less, the first half, go back to
settling the body in its natural state; back to the same type of awareness but instead of attending to the
space of the mind, attending to the space of the body and whatever arises, but you notice my words
there. I’m using very parallel, exactly parallel words, attending to the space of the body and whatever
arises. It’s a wide range of sensations but also feelings; my ankle right now itches; I don’t really like
itches, I want to scratch it, ahh good now it’s gone. So that was within the somatic space, right? And so,
we have a simple question, really, really simple. I’ve asked the question and I think you’ve engaged
with the question in your own experience of whether you can in fact attend to the space of the mind;
whether there’s something to attend to that has qualities and I think you have some sense, kind of from
your own experience what the answer to that is, well you can ask the same question: Can you attend to?
Can you perceive? And not only imagine or project, the space of the body? The space; the sensations
arising within in it; of course. Feelings arising within it, no question. But we say it, in it, in it; is that
just a way of speaking or is it actually a space that you can identify?
[5:16] And then of course you can ask very simply, this is not an analysis but just a close
examination….ok, there’s a space of the body; there certainly is a domain of experience in which
somatic experiences, sensations are arising, that’s kind of undeniable. But we’re going to ask the simple
question, does it have borders? Your body does, sure, there it is; that’s straightforward, skin. That’s
pretty defining of the borders of the body, but that’s as we see it, visually. Right? And as we measure it
physically and so forth, we’re not questioning that; it’s true. But from this first person, I mean what’s it
like to be embodied? I mean it’s... we’ve gotten so used to it but it’s so remarkable. I have no idea what
it’s like to be a glass of water. I think there isn’t anything that knows what it’s like to be a glass of water
because there’s no consciousness in it. But I can be conscious of the glass of water from outside and
scientists are looking at the appearances, the objective appearances of all types of physical phenomena
including the brain; but it’s all appearances, it’s all from the outside. Even if you start shaving the brain
away, it’s just, it’s all outside. All the way down to a neuron, all the way down to an elementary
particle, it’s all outside. Whereas here, this remarkable thing; there’s a book composed by three friends
of mine called ‘The Embodied Mind’. ‘Mind is’ Francisco Varela, Eleanor Rosch, Evan Thompson; it’s
a good book. And they’ve made a very good point with the title and that is mind is embodied. We are
viewing the body from the inside out and it’s the only physical entity in the universe that we can do
that. We can’t do that with another person’s body. We can touch, we can see and so forth but not from
the inside. This is the only physical entity in the universe that we can view it from the inside. So what’s
the space of the body? Does it have contours? Does it have a colour? Is it dark? Is it black? Is it
transparent? Does the space have a shape? We’re not questioning the body, does, yes of course it does.
But the space? Does that have a shape? So check that out.
[7:19] And a final point before we start; stillness and motion, stillness and movement. You’ve heard it
time and time again. Well it’s not only the stillness of your awareness, attending to the fluctuations, the
sensations arising and passing, coming and going. In the space of the body and then the appearances
coming and going, in the space of the mind but also itself, relatively speaking, is it not true that the
space itself is still? The space of the mind, even if it’s fizzing, even if its foaming, even if its
effervescent and shimmering, it’s not moving here or there and that it’s quite homogenous isn’t it? I
mean like background radiation. It’s quite; if we’re really dealing with the analogue of the energy of
empty space that I spoke about this morning, which is a physical fact; if we’re talking about something
like that then it doesn’t go in ebb and flow, it doesn’t fluctuate, doesn’t have spikes, it’s like
background radiation. It’s not the same by the way, but it’s like that, and so that is a relative stillness.
It’s a relative stillness. But then of course the thought of something comes up, an image of something
comes up and then it vanishes. Stillness within the space; the space is stillness. Relatively speaking, the
events taking place within it are motion.
[8:32] Similarly the stillness of the space of your body and the motion, the motion of sensations and
feelings, arising in that space. Stillness and motion. We see here something here right immediately
experiential, phenomenological, there’s no belief or mysticism here of any sort, nothing transcendent.
But then if we, if we look further down the road, to taking dharmata as the path, because that’s the next
one. You take mind as the path and then you take dharmata, ultimate reality as the path. Right? You do
that well now you’re right in the domain of the Heart Sutra, Perfection of Wisdom, Madhyamaka.
Ohhh, form is emptiness, emptiness is form; apart from form there is no emptiness apart from
emptiness there is no form. Stillness in motion. Emptiness is still. Emptiness doesn’t move, it doesn’t
shift, it doesn’t do stuff. Form does. But the form is nothing other than empty; the form itself is empty.
Emptiness itself is taking on form. Stillness and motion. And then we go to the deepest level. Rigpa is
beyond coming and going. Primordially, timelessly, timelessly, beyond coming and going, rising and
passing; beyond l conceptual frameworks. Stillness, primordial stillness, beyond time stillness, that’s
really still. And yet constantly manifesting in all manner of displays. Stillness and motion. Big topic.
All the way through. All the way through. So good, let’s practice for 24 minutes. See what happens.
[10.22] Meditation session begins; not recorded.
[10.24] Olaso.
So let’s plunge right back into this swiftly running current of Karma Chagmé’s presentation of
shamatha. So we see a theme that he’s very, very strongly emphasizing in here, is that the role of
shamatha is to enable you to transcend the configurations, the constructs of thought. It’s kind of like
escape velocity; if you send a rocket up with too little energy, it will just fall back of course, but if you
send it with enough then it will escape the gravitational field of the earth and go into deep space. So we
have the gravitational field so to speak of our concepts, our theoretical frameworks, our language and
so forth, and we can think very deep thoughts. That’s like sending a rocket very high up and it falls
back down to the ground again, ‘cause it’s still thoughts, it’s still anthropocentric because we’re still
thinking in our language, you know, whereas the shamatha is the technology to enable you to get
enough thrust to be able to cut through all conceptual designations, and penetrate to a domain of reality
that’s entirely beyond the scope of the intellect; and that’s what you do with vipashyana, but you won’t
be able to sustain it without shamatha.
[11:51] And so here we are in the Aṣṭasahasrikāprajñāpāramitā, the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra in eight
thousand verses. It is said, By cultivating the perfection of wisdom you do not abide in form nor in
feeling nor in discernment nor in mental formations nor in conscious. So he just listed the five
skandhas; you’re transcending these, clearly.
[12:15] In the synthesis of our own view it is said, by means of mudras, mandalas, mantras,
visualizations and recitation, So he pretty much just sums up stage of generation practice. even with
many tens of millions of eons there is never any attainment of siddhis. One who abides in reality,
This is reality as in dharmata. upon abandoning all conceptualisation, one who abides in emptiness,
ultimate reality, upon abandoning all conceptualisation, achieves success in this life and reaches
supreme enlightenment.
[12:48] This needs a little bit of commentary and that is - if you have, if you have achieved shamatha,
and you have insight into emptiness, and you are motivated by bodhichitta and you engage in stage of
generation practice, oh there’s all kinds of siddhis that arise, many, many, many. Without having to go
through all the olympic gymnastics of all the kasinas, and the form realm and formless realm, but if you
don’t have shamatha they’re not going to arise; if you don’t have realization of emptiness they won’t
arise, and so you must abandon all conceptualisation and abide in emptiness; you abide in emptiness
with vipashyana but you can’t do that unless you’ve abandoned conceptualisation. And that’s with
shamatha. It always comes back to what Tsongkhapa so rightly and universally claimed, the core of all
buddhist meditation is shamatha/vipashyana. Everything else is derivative or around about that, but
that’s right to the core.
[spelling 13:42] The Sahambuddhamaha Tantra said, in this it is said, Upon leaving the abode of the
conceptualisation’ and I don’t think my translation is very good; I wish I could see the Tibetan, but I
think it probably should be better; even if; so upon leaving the abode of the conceptualisation Ok
escape velocity; you’ve transcended the noise; you’ve gone down to pure signal, no noise, even if a
perceptive person does not realise this so whether you know or not, according to the words of the
Mind Vajra, so Buddha, for this person there is no doubt about siddhis. So siddhis arise by
transcending this whole domain of conceptualisation. With conceptualisation you go to the hell realms
so better stop thinking quickly! (laughter) That’s quite daunting. (laughter) And circle around in the
ocean of six types of existence. If you are liberated from conceptualisation you go to the unstained
sphere of peace that is of course nirvana so cut the web of conceptualisation. And I think we all have a
sense of what he’s saying here, that is there are virtuous concepts, and unvirtuous concepts but this is
again compulsive or obsessive ideation. And it’s exactly what Shantideva says, One whose mind is
distracted lives between the fangs of mental afflictions. Your immune system’s shot, so something
really negative comes up it’s going to consume you. So I think that is very simply what is stated there.
[spelling 15.00] The Vairocana-Abhisambodhi, in this it is said Conceptualisation or obsessive
thoughts turn into suffering. I think that’s an empirical, empirically evidenced truth. For as long as
they are not eliminated there is no buddhahood in this world and there is nothing called
omniscience. So there’s no path. As long as your mind; I mean it’s kind of just, should be obvious. If
your mind’s still prone to obsessive thinking and thoughts and so obsessive/compulsive, to think of
setting out on this royal highway of the bodhisattva path is crazy. You’re bringing in a car that’s already
totalled; you might want to fix your car first. So in the Vajramara tantra it is said In the exhaustion of
all obsessive thinking or thoughts, great bliss perfectly arises.
[15:47] In the [spelling 15:51] Vajrapanyapesheka maha....tantra it is said In primordial consciousness
free of conceptualisation the Jinas that is the conqueror’s, the victorious ones, the Buddhas of the past
have become Buddhas. That’s how they did it by way of primordial consciousness that transcends all
conceptualisation. In that freedom from conceptualization it is said that you gain success in tantra.
And this is literally secret mantra or secret mantrayana, The pure results of that naturally transform
into clear light Okay, they’re like being primordial consciousness and for one who dwells in
conceptualisation, siddhis do not arise. So by eliminating conceptualisation imagine the forms of
tantra. Eliminate them and then move into this whole realm of pure vision, pure vision, the forms of
tantra, pure vision of tantra as in [? 16:50] ……. secret mantrayana. In the [spelling 16:54] Udi……
tantra it is said In order to achieve the [spelling 15.54] jinyanakaya, [spelling 16:55] Jinyana means
primordial consciousness, kaya’s embodiment, so in order to achieve the embodiment of primordial
consciousness One could say this is dharmakaya the Tathagata recommended meditation that
eliminates all compulsive, I checked the Tibetan there it’s right on the bottom of the page, and it’s
better than mental fabrication, this is the compulsive thinking, compulsive thoughts, compulsive
ideation; so you must go beyond that, must transcend that.
[17.22] And again all of this is taking place in the shamatha section so we know what he’s getting at.
This is the tool you need to deal with this problem and then you get the other problems of reification
and so forth well that’s what the next chapters are for. Vipashyana. [spelling 17.50] The Vairocana-
Abhisambodhi, here in this it is said, Those who long for the state of omniscience should continually
strive for the total elimination of all forms of conceptualisation.
[17.48] So just to pause for a moment, the theme of transcendence, I mean we have this fundamental
drive to find happiness and be free of suffering, but I think it’s quite well known, just well known, that
many people very explicitly and perhaps all people implicitly, have a yearning for transcendence, you
know, and they’ll join political parties, they’ll join ISIS, they’ll join the Republican party, they’ll
become buddhists, you know, a sense of belonging to something larger than yourself; transcending the
confines of yourself. People becoming, you know, taking monastic ordination, becoming yogis,
becoming you know, there’s just so many ways of trying to get beyond your skin, you know. And so in
science the fundamental technique since Galileo, to see beyond the veil of these anthropocentric
appearances that are arising in dependence upon our human sense faculties. So we look around and we
think we’re seeing Tuscany. We’re seeing an anthropocentric view of Tuscany. Because if you were a
rabbit, a bumble bee and so forth and so on you’re not going to see this. You’re going to be living in a
world that has something in common with ours but you’re experiencing something else, right? And so
Galileo, profoundly religious person, a natural born contemplative, as he wanted to know the mind of
the creator by way of the creation, he looked outwards; again the motion of transcendence. He wanted
to transcend this bubble, of appearances arising to his mind and so he brought greater sophistication to
those appearances with his telescope and with his other instruments of technology; still appearances.
But he wasn’t after just more appearances ‘Oh look I can see dots moving around, the big dot of
Jupiter’. He would use that as a launching pad of mathematics, the language of God, and then be able
to infer. This was his fundamental belief, and it’s a very reasonable belief, that using mathematics,
which is not a human language and based upon very sophisticated measurements of the appearances, he
could then leap out of, inferentially, with the intellect, with thought, leap beyond, the anthropocentric
and think the thoughts of God. I think Einstein used the same terminology; to think the thoughts of
God.
[20:08] What was God thinking when God created the universe? And scientists will say nature speaks
in only one language, mathematics. Christian scientists, scientists who are Christians, may, I’m sure
they’ve said for centuries, God thinks in the language of mathematics, and so that’s one form of
transcendence, to look outwards and to slip into a rarefied mode of conceptualisation, of pure, kind of
pure mathematical thought, and you can infer things that are true beyond the sensory domain of human
being. But I don’t sense that you can transcend the form realm. I think they’re accessing by way of
intellect, the patterns, the regularities, the mathematical principles and laws of the form realm, which
are then manifesting in this world here. That’s my speculation. But as long as you’re embedded in
thought, as contemplatives in Christianity and Buddhism and so forth have known for centuries, as long
as you’re embedded in thought you do not transcend to the ultimate, right. And so here is another; so
there’s one way to achieve perfect objectivity is to transcend subjective, The Taboo of Subjectivity, one
of my favourite books that I’ve written, to transcend that by means of pure thought which is then
mathematics, and intellectually, again using what Aristotle thought was man’s highest faculty and that
is reason to then transcend our anthropocentricity and see reality as it is as God sees it.
[21:54] There’s one strategy and that’s being extremely productive as we all know for hedonic well-
being, for technology and so forth, but the contemplative approach here, so clearly articulated, there’s
another way to transcend. It’s not by looking outwards with rarefied abstract thought, it’s by
transcending thought entirely, and in transcending thought entirely, in transcending subjective
appearances, that the five senses entirely, then you transcend the anthropocentric bubble and you tap
into a reality that is ultimate. So it’s a different strategy; they’re complimentary, but they certainly give
rise….one is a, a magnificent source for hedonia, and gives us basically nothing at all for eudaimonia,
and the other one is we look at the, you know the primitive nature of Tibetan culture, with you know,
prayer wheels being their highest technology, gave them frankly nothing. I mean Buddhism, for those
1200 years, what did Buddhism really give hedonically? That they didn’t have before? I think it’s
prayer wheels; I don’t think it was much else at all. But the level of contentment in the country was
quite extraordinary. But immensely, I mean inconceivably enriched, not only the great yogis but the
whole of society, eudaimonically. So there’s a trade-off there. On we go.
[23:08] So in the [spelling 23:08] Vajra…. yoga tantra the point, the peak of the vajra, the vajra point
tantra It is said Evil spirits do not exist at all once the mind itself is purified. Your own mind is called
mara and evil spirits are also your own mind. Clear out all ideation for evil spirits arise from
ideation. Hold fast to the mind which is difficult to subdue and eliminate desires. That’s a theme that
Düdjom Lingpa, Padmasambhava really, really, really emphasizes in the Vajra Essence, and that is they
have this tremendous menagerie of all kinds of different spirits in Tibetan world view and just one by
one he said, ‘and this is a projection of this mental affliction, and this is a projection of this one and this
one, this one and goes through all of them and cutting them all off at the knees as having any objective,
inherently existence, and saying subdue this one and you subdue them all.’
[24:15] Nagarjuna states The buddhas have said that the characteristic of the cessation of the flow of
wholesome and unwholesome ideation is emptiness. Of course you can’t be comatose, that doesn’t
work. You’d be free of all thoughts if you’re just comatose but this is where you’re transcending
ideation with insight. So the whole issue of transcending ideation, again that’s the shamatha element,
penetrating through to emptiness that’s the vipashyana element. Shantideva states, Due to the isolation
of the body, speech and mind, distraction does not occur. As we withdraw body speech and mind
from busyness, from entertainment, from distraction and so forth then distraction does not occur
therefore the world is to be renounced and ideation is to be thoroughly rejected.
[spelling 25:09] In the Nymeetra…. what is it in Tibetan [spelling 25.09]? entering yoga, entering
yoga, it is said the mind settles in meditative equipoise with the continual elimination of the
proliferation the mind settled in, yep, settled in, the mind settles in meditative equipoise with the
continual elimination of the proliferation of ideation called samsara. That’s fine, ok?
[25:44] So there, the same theme, but he is saying it so many times I think he really means it. [laughter]
And he’s drawing from so many sources. Saraha, the great mahamudra master, Tilopa’s teacher and
Tilopa was Naropa’s teacher, and Naropa was Marpa’s teacher and Marpa was Milarepa’s teacher and
he was Gompopa’s teacher and then right on through the Karmapas. Saraha states, ‘Often mahamudra
is presented as if it has nothing to do with shamatha like oh we’re beyond that you know. Well not
according to Saraha. Shamatha depends upon its cause, ethical discipline. Its nature is isolation from
mental afflictions and ideation. Its cooperative condition is reliance upon special sustained
attention, the benefit is that gross mental afflictions and suffering are suppressed or subdued might
be better. Gross mental afflictions and suffering are subdued. You want that as your new base camp.
If you’re still drowning in gross mental afflictions, and suffering, vipashyana, I mean authentic
vipashyana - really difficult. You’ll get mugged. You’ll be wanting to you know, set out on the great
voyage of vipashyana and you’ll just be mugged. You’ll have these street gangs just beating you up
every step of the way, and as your coarse mental afflictions and just coarse disappointment, depression,
anxiety and blah blah blah; you can’t bring an ordinary mind to vipashyana and expect great success.
So the notion of skipping it is just, I don’t know, it’s a cheap trick. It’s a shortcut that just doesn’t go
anywhere in the long term. And then people doing that for a year or two and then thinking they’ve
achieved stream entry. I feel sorry for them, because now they won’t actually ever find stream entry as
long as they hold on that notion, oh I’ve achieved stream entry, their chances of achieving stream entry
are zero. Because they’ve deluded themselves into thinking they’ve already done it. Ok? It happens a
lot.
[27:22] So now this has been a presentation of cultivating shamatha by itself. So, it’s possible in
principle, and this is widely recognised, for the very gifted, just as there are extraordinarily gifted
mathematicians and musicians, and artists and so forth, I mean unbelievable, almost inconceivable
brilliance like a Michelangelo or da Vinci, a Mozart, an Einstein and so forth, that so far transcend the
normal, that it’s hard to imagine how one can be that brilliant, right? Well there are people also brilliant
in dharma.
[spelling 27:42] Mingyur Dorjé, the disciple, he was one of those incredible prodigy’s, you know. And
so for such individuals, the extraordinary ones, they may right from the beginning, be introduced to
let’s say, emptiness, teachings on emptiness, middle way view, and they can go right into it and they
can simultaneously cultivate shamatha and vipashyana. Shamatha focused on emptiness. And achieve
shamatha by way of vipashyana, so they achieve the two simultaneously. That’s not impossible; it’s
rare, but it’s not impossible. Right? Others may go right to, if they have some insight into emptiness,
they might go right in and achieve shamatha by way of stage of generation. Others, the extraordinarily
gifted, may receive pointing out instructions on rigpa, realise rigpa and they just get shamatha by the
by. It’s just swept in, you know. So it’s important to see just what the enormous range. I think it’s much
greater in fact, that maybe Mozart maybe is as good as it gets for music in terms of sheer prodigy; I
don’t know if there was a great one. And we find people like that in mathematics, and so forth, but ok
maybe that’s as good as it gets. But we can kind of imagine, ok, but when it comes to spiritual
prodigy’s I think the spectrum is much more than we can imagine. And outwardly we see just a little
boy, or a little girl; gender, I would say this, my very strong speculation, the more that society itself
becomes gender neutral, really treats women with the respect that is due to them, that has always been
due to them, as being absolute partners in every meaningful way; insofar as society start giving real fair
and equal treatment to women and showing equal respect, then we’ll get more and more female tulkus.
And insofar as screwed up society’s just bare this burden of thinking ‘oh the men have to be on top,
men have to be on top’, then the tulkus will say, ‘If that’s the game you want to play, ok I’ll be a man
again. Cos that’s the only way to give me any respect; you wouldn’t even give me an education. So I’m
not going to be born in Tibet as a female tulku in the 18th century, you’re not going to give me the time
of day again. You’re going to give me om mani padme hum and tell me go away.’ (laughter) You know.
‘The chances of my becoming a great yogini, and getting sufficient training and so forth - pretty slim.’
Now, Tibetans happily, we have a lot of female geshes, Tibetan geshes, western geshes, more and more,
and yogis; Tenzin Palmo so forth. So I think we can hope to see more female tulkus, prodigy’s,
enlightened beings who come in and say, ‘Oh this is a sane society, where there is some parity here;
sure I’ll come as a woman. Nice change.’ We need more frankly. That’s my very strong conviction. I
think we need more female tulkus.
[30:29] So in that, we’ve covered that. So this has been a presentation of cultivating shamatha by
itself. So you may cultivate it simultaneously with vipashyana, simultaneously with stage of generation,
simultaneously with trekchö. If you’re brilliant, super brilliant, incredibly, inconceivably brilliant but
for those who are more dull faculties, like me, and maybe some other people, then ok take shamatha
first and then you move on.
[30:55] So this has been a presentation of cultivating shamatha by itself in which you do your best to
keep your mind still without being scattered anywhere. Ok? So there’s still stability. [31:06] With the
body in the correct posture, place the body and mind in a state of comfort and relaxation. I just love
it when they say that. You know; you find that in primarily the Mahamudra and Dzogchen literature. I
haven’t found it so much elsewhere. But in the 21st century we all need to hear this whether you’re
Tibetan, Bhutanese, American, whatever. If the mind becomes scattered, establish it in stillness
without letting it become diffused. Maintaining the mind in stillness, having calmed the scatterings
of ideation, is shamatha.
[31:41] And now he goes into a very interesting discussion which I will need to unpack a bit. I’ve given
this thought, I’ve been reflecting upon this, investigating this doing background research for about 25
years, so I have some perspective on this that may be of interest. So flawed, so now there is minor
really tiny bitness, Now there is flawed and flawless meditation, just to be in accordance, either one is
fine; but flawed and flawless. So first of all what’s flawed meditation? And I’m going to change; I’m
abandoning my own earlier interpretation, so when you see big footnotes, scratch them out; I think
they’re completely wrong. It was a nice try but I think they’re wrong. 63 and 64, I think they’re wrong;
and those are my footnotes, so I’m not criticising somebody else.
[jokingly] It’s that stupid Alan that used to exist but he no longer, he died. (laughter) Very happy.
(laughter) I presided over his funeral. (laughter) Schmuck! (laughter) Due to the minds’ entering
shamatha, (laughter), so here’s flawed, here’s flawed shamatha. And I have a new interpretation.
Maybe later on I’ll call myself today a schmuck but for now I’m standing by what I say. (laughter)
[32.57] Due to the minds’ entering shamatha Bear in mind shamatha is not just one stage, you know,
it’s a process, it’s a process. You’re practising shamatha, you’re entering into your best approximation
of shamatha the first time you practice. And then they say, and many of you have heard me say this
many times, [Tibetan 33:09] ‘I am accomplishing shamatha. I’m on stage one.’ You know, and that’s
how you accomplish shamatha; you accomplish, and then after a while ‘I’m accomplishing shamatha
,and I’m on stage two’ but it’s not ‘I hope I will one day but I haven’t yet, but I hope so’. Now that just
gets you caught up in hope and fear.
[33:32] So Due to the minds entering shamatha, entering shamatha practice. Even if you are called
you do not hear as if you had fallen deep asleep but you are not nodding of, at that time the eyes do
not see anything. Now here’s the giveaway point, to my mind this is the real big one, with an unclear
mind, unclear, everything hinges on unclear with an unclear mind you do not recall or think
anything. Even though you are in such a state for a long time you are unaware of the passage of
time. When you are aroused from that samadhi it’s like waking up from sleep or being restored to
consciousness after fainting and you think, now what’s happened to me? or what what, what, what,
what, you know like that, and so I was far too generous I think, I’m really quite strong on my rejection
of the earlier interpretation. That was very charitable. I think it was way too charitable. I think it was
wrong, because I’m not even going to comment on that. I’m going to say what I think it is now, time is
short. I think what he’s talking about, and I think there was a strong intimation of this in his shamatha
chapter in Spacious Path to Freedom, that along the nine stages, the first real turning point or crossing a
watershed, like the continental divide, is achieving the fourth and then seeking to achieve the fifth.
That’s the first big challenge.
[34:57] And it’s a challenge that a lot of people don’t rise to meet, do not succeed, and it will naturally
come if you’ve not received precise, accurate instructions on the nine stages. A lot of people don’t.
They have no idea where there are, it’s just ‘Are we there yet? I guess we’re there.’ A lot of people
thinking they’ve achieved the first dhyāna and so forth. They’re just clueless, that just a problem,
they’re just clueless. They just don’t know. They’ve plucked out some sound bites from the Pali canon,
that oh yeah, and then they think, you know, ‘I’ve achieved it’. Well they’re almost certainly wrong. So
my interpretation here is this, and then I will, I’d be willing to defend this one. He’s referring to the
fourth mental state out of nine preceding access to the first dhyāna.
[35:32] And at this point you might recall that one of the problems, or challenges, is complacency. That
until then you’re subject to coarse excitation, which you know is irritating, annoying, frustrating ah my
I’ve lost my mind again, ahhh, and then you stabilise in stage four. This means you can kind of slip into
flow, like an hour, and if you get really relaxed maybe two hours. If your body doesn’t pain you, may
be longer. And you just get into that flow and the minds really quiet, really, really quiet and it’s calm,
and it’s soothing and it’s peaceful. And you don’t need introspection; who needs introspection when it’s
so peaceful? And you are feeling drowsy (laughter), you are feeling drowsy (laughter). You’re going
into a trance and Karma Chagmé says if you continue that you’ll be born as a dog (laughter). And
what’s happening here is you’re not exercising introspection; introspection, is an expression of
intelligence. And you’re not using it, and you’re not using any other kind of intelligence either. You’re
not investigating anything; you’re just floating down the stream of coarse laxity. That’s what he says
‘unclear’. If you’ve succumbed to coarse laxity, your mind is not clear. It’s not a matter of medium
laxity or subtle laxity and it’s certainly not a matter of the third out four types of mindfulness that
Düdjom Lingpa speaks of, which is where you’ve almost achieved shamatha. I’m sure this is wrong.
The earlier interpretation or footnote is wrong. This is way down the mountain. Stage four where the
mind is very calm, it’s very quiet but you haven’t honed, you’re not even utilizing, your introspective
skills, so you’re basically for hour after hour even maybe day, week, month after month, you’re not
exercising your intelligence, in any way. You’re just resting in this nice warm jacuzzi of an inner
serenity and peacefulness and you’re slipping into and getting mired down in stupor. And you can think
that’s shamatha, and you say but shamatha means tranquillity and I’m really tranquil.
[37:47] Yeah, you’re also getting really stupid, you know. So he’s giving a big warning, this is flawed.
This is not a natural step on the way. The third type of mindfulness, remember absence of mindfulness,
just before self-illuminating mindfulness, that’s not a flaw. That’s a natural step in the progression,
very, very far up, like stage nine; you’re almost there. That’s not a flaw. That’s not a flaw at all, it’s just
a phase you briefly move through and then you achieve shamatha.
[38.13] I don’t think this is anywhere near shamatha. I think; it’s stupid stage four, where you’ve not
risen to the challenge of recognising coarse laxity; and overcoming it. I’m very strong on that
interpretation now. So if I’m wrong, just like I said before, if I’m wrong - I’m flamboyantly wrong,
wildly, crazy ass, totally wrong. But you’ll have to show me. [claps hands] Ok? Until then I stand
where I stand, I sit where I sit. A person who experiences such things is confused about shamatha.
Well that’s good, and that’s not what it says down in the footnotes 63 or 64. At first if such experiences
happen momentarily If just once in a while you slip into that, ok this is no problem and it’s indication
that the meditative state is arising. You’ve gotten over coarse excitation; cool. That’s a step on the way,
that’s good. But for heaven’s sake now is not the time to sit back in the easy chair and just, you know,
space out. There are also accounts of people knowing such things as the past and future. So having
some bit of clairvoyance. People who have never meditated sometimes have premonitions. That’s no
big deal. It is inappropriate to continue in that thinking it is meditation. If you cultivate that alone it
acts as a cause for birth as an animal. And it’s for the very simple reason, I think actually you know, it
makes really good sense - you are not using your frontal cortex, you’re not using your human
intelligence. Use it or lose it. Karmically speaking, use it or lose it. If you don’t use it, ok, then if
you’re acting like an animal, then you’ll get a form that corresponds to having one. Ribbit ribbit ribbit
(laughter).
[40:05] Again focus So if you’re succumbing to this type of dullness, flat out dullness or coarse laxity
or spacing out, don’t have any sense of track of time, you come out of meditation, you’re kind of
disoriented. These are not good signs. These are not nyam. These are indications you’re meditating
incorrectly. So what to do? Again focus the mind on the centre of the heart and remain without
bringing any thoughts to mind, So you’re going right into the nucleus there. by so doing the mind will
remain without the occurrence of memories or thoughts, thus due to the absence of memories and
thoughts the eight collections of outer consciousness are unclear. You’ve so withdrawn the mind
inwards, that you know, the five physical senses and so on are unclear. Although there are no other
memories or thoughts in the mind there is the mere discernment of the minds remaining single
pointedly. There is no observation of the nature of stillness. When you meditate you will not sense
where the sun has moved. You’ve become oblivious of the surrounding environment. This is said to be
analogous to shravaka cessation that’s (? 40.56) narota but this is not faultless samadhi. If it at first
it’s momentary this is no problem, but it is inappropriate to meditate continually in that way. So I
think all that he’s getting about in these various paragraphs here about flawed meditation is he’s, I think
he’s really addressing that point, that people do fall into it in Tibet and fall into it now. They’ve not had
sophisticated, detailed instructions on the nine stages and what are the distinguishing characteristics of
achieving shamatha. None of that; they’re just given a method, follow your breath, you know, and then
they do, you get the fourth stage. ‘Hey I’ve arrived; this is serenity, this is tranquillity. My mind is
calm, I’m happy’, you know, and then they, you know, then they just become stupid. So look out for
that. This is a very good warning.
[41:54] The interesting part is next, and I think if we can maybe cover this today it would be good. This
is where it gets very interesting and… But the comments I’ll make, it’s interesting… Frankly I’ll say
this, emphatically; the next discussion and my critique of it or my response to it is interesting if and
only if one is really interested in path. In reaching a path and proceeding along a path to enlightenment.
If all you want to do is just practice dharma, if that’s what you want to do, you want to do a bit of this, a
bit of that, a bit of stage of generation maybe some six yogas, maybe do a three year retreat, maybe
practice tonglen, do some lojong, do a lot of pujas and then die, everything I’m about to say is
irrelevant, because you’re a happy camper already. And a lot of people are very content with that.
That’s fine; I’m not, but that’s ok. But if one is looking for something more than just - I’d like to do a
bit of this, a bit of that, I’d like to actually set out on a path, which is, after all, it is the fourth Noble
Truth. If one is interested in that, then the comments may be relevant. You’ll see.
[43:00] Faultless meditation, what’s that like? Now then, what is flawless meditation? Wherever the
mind is directed, it remains still and clear So there we have clear as opposed to the preceding unclear,
that’s sounds good; still and clear, stable and vivid. When you’re meditating the eight collections of
consciousness including the eyes, ears and so on do not cease. Rather each one is clear. Ok? Eight
collections of consciousness, that’s five sensory consciousness, ordinary mental consciousness,
substrate consciousness and afflictive mentation. (Tibetan/sanskrit 43:38) ………. or ……… in
sanskrit, and this is something very primal, I think I’ve referred to it before, a very raw primal sense of
I am, pre articulate, preconceptual, a coagulation of me. Ok? He’s saying all of these do not cease, they
are all operative and each one is clear. Now there is one part here that I don’t throw out, and it’s just the
first sentence in footnote 65. Because that’s from Gyatrul Rinpoche, and the rest is my nonsense. Ok?
That I’m rejecting now. . And that is Gyatrul Rinpoche said, and I think this is impeccable, he says
Whereas in flawed meditation the senses are totally withdrawn but again we saw that before, the
crucial point here is they are withdrawn because you’re so dull. It’s like you’re half way asleep. It’s
unclear. From all the discussion we’ve had thus far, when you’ve achieved shamatha, having gone
through all of the nine stages and you’re resting in self illuminating mindfulness, the fourth type of
mindfulness, boy is there nothing unclear about that. It’s radiant; you come into the very nature of
luminosity.
[44.20] So it just cannot be described as unclear because it’s a very clarity itself right? And so whereas
in flawed meditation the senses are totally withdrawn and they’re unclear, stage four crummy level, not
moving beyond it in flawless meditation sensory objects do appear to the senses but they’re not
apprehended. Ok? But again, that really threw up red flags in my mind. Even that, I think he’s right, I
mean I’m not debating with him, but, there’s something coming. So here we are in flawless
meditation, the body and mind are saturated with joy without irritation Ok? Bear in mind that
happens on many occasions along the path; that’s not just waiting for you at the end of the rainbow
when you achieve shamatha, and likewise, you know, long before you achieve shamatha you can have
a very still and clear mind. You don’t have to, it doesn’t start at shamatha. So the body and mind are
saturated with joy without irritation. This happens whenever you are mediating. When you’re not
meditating effortlessly there’s great freedom. This is shamatha alone and it is the foundation of
meditation. So anybody who is following the Kagyu tradition, if they’re not following that I think
they’re not following the Kagyu tradition. I mean this is shamatha; this is shamatha alone and it’s the
foundation of meditation. I don’t know anyway whether that you’d interpret that as literally and it’s
stated by Lerab Lingpa and Düdjom Lingpa and Tsongkhapa and Buddha and Shantideva and so forth.
How it is overlooked so widely and broadly I just don’t, when all is said and done I don’t fathom it. But
we continue.
[46:20 ] Moreover by cultivating shamatha physical and mental bliss arise. Yep! But it happens again,
along the path and not just at the end. With the arising of grace attachment and craving for that *** if
you cling to it ***and regarding it as being the highest state you just kind really of get off on the
bliss, you’re born in the god of the desire realm. If you cultivate it without attachment or craving it
leads to the path. In that shamatha, by applying an investigative, analytical mind Ok I’m going to
pause there, that’s where I’m going to pause. Because Gyatrul Rinpoche taught this text in 19, I think it
was probably 1990 or 91, I can’t remember quite which, but it was the first time I translated for him
and this, this is shamatha, if this is referring to access to the first dhyāna this isn’t like anything I’ve
heard thus far. This is contrary to everything I’ve heard thus far, and so what’s happening here? Have I
misunderstood or what’s going on here? Because this doesn’t sound like anything else. Bring up the
cellphone (laughter). So here’s about 20 years of research summarised very briefly. The real question
here, I give away the plot- when he says shamatha, shamatha, shamatha, is he referring to access to the
first dhyāna, is he referring to that? Or is he referring to something less? The Third Karmapa, great
authority, Rangjung Dorje, one of the most renowned of all the Karmapas, lived from 1284 - 1339, in
his great instruction, [? 48:10 Teechen]. Now here what he’s doing, and I’m going to cite a number of
the great patriarchs in the Kagyu tradition. They’re now doing what I love to see done, is they are
mapping shamatha and this whole meditative process onto the path, onto the path, classic path, path of
accumulation and so forth. They’re doing this and they’re doing this with enormous authority. So if
you’re following the Kagyu path you can assume these people speak, this is the gold standard. Ok?
[48:50] So the Third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje, associates the small stage of the yoga of single
pointedness Ok there are four yogas in Mahamudra. Four yogas, and they cover the whole path. The
yoga of single pointedness, the yoga of [spelling 49:02] …. free of conceptual elaboration, that’s just
the names; single pointed yoga, yoga free of conceptual elaboration, that’s [spelling 49:16] …., the
yoga of one taste, that’s going very deep, and then the yoga of non-meditation, those four. And then
you’re finished. Finished. Four yogas, you’re finished. Start to finish, ok? But now he’s mapping this
onto the five paths. Well our time is short, even our next 3.5 weeks is short but he associates the small
stage...so we have the small, medium and great stage of the first of those first four yogas. Ok? That’s
why I perk up my ears. What’s the base of the pyramid; where do you start, where’s the entry? Small
stage of the first yoga, what’s that like? I’ll learn about the others later, but this is the one that’s
important. If you don’t get there, then you’re nowhere, right? So he associates the small stage of the
yoga of single pointedness with the Mahayana path of accumulation. The first of the five paths
culminating in perfect enlightenment. Ok? Now you’ve heard before. There’s very good reason to
believe, that to reach, to get onto the small stage of the Mahayana path of accumulation you must have
fully achieved shamatha, the nine stages, the full deal and of course bodhichitta.
[50:22] So now we make a leap, about 300 hundred years to the Ninth Karmapa. Another, they’re all
renowned, but this is another one a renowned one, Wangchuk Dorjé . And in one of the most classic
texts in the Kagyu, Mahamudra tradition, it’s called Mahamudra The Ocean Of Definitive Meaning, he
states, and I quote How then should one seek to realise shamatha? It is highly praiseworthy for
someone to achieve shamatha at the threshold of the first dhyāna [within the form realm]. As stated
before.
[50:50] Ok, at the threshold of the first dhyāna, this is access, which I’ve been talking about all along,
right? Access to the first dhyāna and then there’s the full achievement of dhyana. This is true in the
Theravada tradition, Indian Buddhist tradition, it’s true in Kagyu, it’s true in all four schools of
Buddhism, and there is really a very broad consensus in Tibetan Buddhism that the minimum amount
of shamatha needed to reach the path and progress along the path to its culmination, with the help of
vajrayana, maybe the six yogas, Mahamudra, Dzogchen and so forth, access to the first dhyāna. Ok.
There’s a really wide consensus there and it goes back to India, back to the sutras, as we shall see
shortly. So he says it’s highly praiseworthy for someone to achieve shamatha at the threshold of the
first dhyāna, access to the first dhyāna, as stated before, so he’s already discussed this. Failing that
though if you’re not quite up to it or for ever reason, you’re not going to quite get there by means of
shamatha alone, Failing that, one would do well to realise single pointed concentration in the desire
realm. Single pointed concentration, that’s the eighth out of nine stages. That’s very, very far up along
the path. There’s only one more, ninth, and then you’re at shamatha, right. And so that single pointed
attention, you can read about it in the notes that I’ve put on the web. And Claudio, you send it to
everybody here? The auxiliary material, do you send it to everybody? ‘Person on the website’, person
on the website. That’s already on the website, and just as a footnote, at sometime within the next 24
hours, there will be another paper that’s posted on the website for everybody, podcasters and so forth,
and that is a paper I wrote some years ago on space and consciousness relating physics and Dzogchen,
and so it’s kind like a big commentary on this morning’s very brief talk. You might find it interesting.
People are interested in space and consciousness, it’s all about that. So, but, eighth, at the eighth stage,
what’s that like? Eighth stage you’re free of subtle excitation and subtle laxity. It’s really extremely
good samadhi. It takes a wee bit of effort to get in as soon as you get in it’s effortless. Your senses are
still open although they may fade out now and again, not hearing sounds and so forth, but they’re still
open. You’re in the desire realm. Clearly. But it’s a classic case where you’re so in the zone, so focused
on whatever you’re attending to on a Buddha image or just resting in awareness of awareness, that
these appearances arise and you don’t notice them. They are impinging upon your senses. Your senses
are clear; they’re picking up the data but your mental awareness is not engaging with them. So they
arise but you don’t ascertain them. I give the example of being engrossed in a novel on an airplane.
Ok? That’s eighth stage.
[53:41] So everything he’s stating here, stated earlier, your mind is single pointed, it’s clear, its
luminous, you might even have some extra sensory ability and so forth, everything he said was exactly
accurate pertaining to the eighth out of nine stages. And that is single pointed. Failing that one would
do well to realise single pointed concentration in the desire realm. That is a really, really good
samadhi. Ok? Now we have another one, now we go to the seventeenth century. Very renowned Tselé
Natsok Rangdröl, The Lamp of Mahamudra, translated in English. One pointedness, the first yoga of
Mahamudra, has three levels, small, medium and great. One pointedness for the most part consists
of shamatha and the gradual progression through the stages of shamatha with support with
characteristic, with sign, without support and finally to the shamatha that delights the tathagatas.
Thats the shamatha that’s focused on emptiness, because otherwise it’s not even a path. ‘That which
delights the tathagatas’ is that you’re getting on to the path and you’re fusing your shamatha with
vipashyana, with some insight into emptiness. That’s when the buddhas really get excited. ‘Oh, you’re
going somewhere. You’re not just having a nice time spinning round in the pleasant form realm or
something’. During that process grasping gradually diminishes. And then Gyatrul Rinpoche, my own
lama, in his commentary to Naked Awareness, this is much further in the text, he writes, and I quote in
his oral commentary, in his oral commentary I wrote down The first stage of single pointedness,
remember it has three stages and that’s the first yoga, The first stage of single pointedness occurs with
the accomplishment of shamatha, wherein one single-pointedly attends to one’s awareness, which is
primordially unceasing and luminous.
[55:49] Ok, so there’s some ambiguity there, when he’s referring, when Karma Chagmé Rinpoche
refers to dwelling in shamatha and all eight senses are clear. Is he referring to access to the first
dhyāna? Which many people call - that’s achieving shamatha or is he achieving something in the
neighbourhood but which is not? Is not in the form realm, not crossed over the threshold to the form
realm, it’s still in the desire realm. It’s really good samadhi but is, is he referring to access to the first
dhyāna when he says your still aware of appearances? So for this we then go back to the Buddha
himself and the Pali canon. And I quote, this is a wonderful quote. I know of the Buddha said, I know
of no other single process which, thus developed and made much of, is pliable and workable as is
this citta this citta, a particular citta - mind. Monks the mind that is thus developed and made much of
is pliable and workable. Monks I know of no other single process so quick to change as is this citta.
Monks this citta is brightly shining, pabhassaram, but it is defiled by adventitious defilements.
Monks, this citta is brightly shining but it is free from adventitious defilements. So monks this citta is
brightly shining but it is defiled by adventitious defilements. Monks this citta is brightly shining but it
is free from adventitious defilements. So he’s referring to a very specific citta there, it’s the bhavanga;
he’s referring to the bhavanga - that adventitiously, now and then that is obscured, but then it’s not, but
the defilements don’t enter into its nature. They don’t corrupt it. They don’t get into its core. They just
cover it. Now again the Buddha states here in the Aṅguttara Nikāya. This is really interesting. The
Aṅguttara Nikāya implies that loving-kindness, mettā, is a quality of the brightly shining citta. Loving
kindness is there. And says that it leads a person to meditatively develop one’s citta.
[57:56] This bhavanga actually inspires you, draws you, impels you to not be stagnant, not complacent,
not just wallow around in samsara. The urge to transcend, the urge to find greater well-being is actually
coming from this domain. This passage implies, and it, you’ll see it, you’ll have the notes, a specific
passage in the Aṅguttara Nikāya, this passage implies that the brightly shining citta which is always
there to be quote ‘uncovered’ is already endowed with loving kindness providing a sound basis for any
conscious development of this quality. This I would say is proto buddha nature. ‘Cos it’s not buddha
nature, this is not rigpa. It’s within samsara, it’s conditioned, but it’s brightly shining, it’s called clear
light mind. And it’s said to be imbued with loving kindness, naturally pure, luminous and obscured. It’s
a proto, a proto buddha nature, I think. So there we have the Pali canon but now we go to the greatest
of commentators in the Theravada tradition, Buddhaghoṣa, Path of Purification. And I plucked these
out yesterday morning, about 3 o’clock in the morning. I got really excited. (laughter) And I’ve shown
you every single citation, so download it, this is really something you want on the computer unless you
just don’t care. But the Visuddhimagga, Path of Purification, download it for free. And it’s a marvellous
PDF ‘cos you can do search in it. That’s how I found this quickly. Ok? Just put in a word and it comes
up; so nifty.
[59.17] So here’s what Buddhaghoṣa says as soon as it [that is] the bhavaṅga,, as soon as it the
bhavanga arises the hindrances obscurations are quite suppressed, the defilements subside, and the
mind becomes concentrated in access concentration. So when do you achieve access concentration?
Access to the first dhyāna. He just said it. When the bhavanga arises, the five obscurations are
subdued, mental afflictions are subdued, and the mind is concentrated, you with the dissolution of
your coarse mind, javana, the activities of the mind. The dissolution of javana into bhavanga, that’s
when you achieve access. That’s what he says. You see it’s a direct quote. That was not an interruption.
Now in the very next section, next paragraph. Now concentration is of two kinds, that is to say, access
concentration and absorption concentration. This is the access to the first dhyāna for example and
the full achievement of the first dhyāna. Very clear ok? Those two. The mind becomes concentrated
in two ways. ‘The mind becomes concentrated in two ways.’ on the plane of access and on the plane
of obtainment. So the mind is concentrated on access to the first dhyāna and it’s concentrated of
course, in the full achievement of the first dhyāna. What’s the difference? Herein the mind becomes
concentrated on the plane of access by abandonment of the hindrances. That’s a defining
characteristic. That when your mind dissolves into the bhavanga the five obscurations are all dormant.
Right? And on the plane of attainment, when you fully achieve the first dhyāna, then your mind is
characterised by the manifestation of the dhyāna factors. The dhyāna factors now are robust, they’re
strong, they’re durable and sustainable. The five dhyāna factors. You have them in access but they’re
not as robust as when you fully achieve the first dhyāna. Classic uniform, those are the teachings. This
is not a debatable point. That’s the difference between access and full. Both are free of the five
obscurations but the five dhyāna factors are more robust, durable, sturdy when you fully achieve them
ok?
[1.01. 25] We continue The difference between the two kinds of concentration is this. The factors, the
dhyāna factors are not strong in access. It is because they are not strong that when access has arisen
the mind now makes the sign its object and now re-enters the bhavanga or as he translates it the life-
continuum. Just so you know - life continuum is bhavanga. So It is not strong. It is because they are
not strong, the five dhyāna factors, that when the access has arisen, the mind now takes the sign as
its, makes the sign its object. This is the counterpart sign. This is the archetypal sign that emerges from
the form realm. Remember? So when you achieve shamatha by way of mindfulness of breathing, you
have preliminary sign, tactile sensations, acquired sign and mental image that arises spontaneously.
And then that breaks apart and the counterpart sign was a hundred or thousand times more subtle than
the acquired sign, that emerges from the form realm. When that arises that’s when you, that’s when
you’ve just crossed the threshold. But when you first access this extremely subtle, archetypal sign, and
it’s the sign of the air element by the way. If you access it by way of mindfulness of breathing, when
that archetypal sign, that counterpart sign arises it is so subtle that you contact it and then you fall back.
And your mind falls back into the bhavanga. It’s not engaged with the sign. So what do you do if you
want to fully achieve dhyāna, the first dhyāna which is strongly emphasised in the Theravada, the
actual Theravada, not the watered down version we have nowadays. The mind takes the counterpart
sign as its object and now re-enters, but it now re-enters the life continuum. And that is you take it as
an object and then you lose it. Ahhh like almost, you fall back but you fall back in bhavanga but that’s
not falling back into stupor. You’ve achieved shamatha, for heaven’s sakes. It’s just that you’ve lost that
connection that engagement with this extremely subtle, archetypal sign of air element. So The mind re-
enters the life continuum just as a young child is lifted up and stood on its feet it repeatedly falls
down on the ground. Ok? It’s a cute image. A little toddler gets up on his wobbly little legs, and falls
back on its bum. When you’re actually achieving access to the first dhyāna you want to fully achieve
shamatha, you have to achieve shamatha all over again, this time on this incredibly subtle object.
And that’s very subtle; that’s very challenging. And when you first start doing it you get it -then you
oooohhhh and then you fall back on your bum. You fall back in bhavanga ok?
[1:04:07] So, that’s not bad, but he wants you to achieve full dhyāna. He wants you to achieve second,
third and fourth. This is Theravada. There’s nothing else to do. [laughter] I mean there’s vipassana,
that’s cool, but that’s kind of it, you know. Dhyāna and vipassana. They don’t have stage of generation,
all the cool deities and bells and you know, bells and whistles that we have, so, you know. Why not
achieve shamatha? You know. I want to have a contemplative observatory where we can lure some
Theravadins in (laughter) and have them do this because you know all the people following Dzogchen
will have no time. (laughter) We’re too busy. Shamatha, vipassana, trekchö, tögal, you know. (laughter)
Somebody’s got to - do it hey Therevada? (laughter) We have a nice place; we’ll give you a room for
free, come on (laughter). We want to watch. (laughter) Tell us how it works out. Ok? Do you mind if
we go on a little bit more? I mean, I’m just loving this. I mean it’s fruit of 20 years of research and it’s
going to get better. Take my word for it. Believe me, ok?
[1:05:02] But the factors are strong in absorption. When you fully achieve the first dhyāna they’re
strong. They’re robust. You don’t fall back on your bum anymore. It is because they are strong that
when absorption, concentration has arisen, full achievement of the first dhyāna for example, the
mind having once interrupted the flow of the bhavanga carries on with a stream of profitable that’s
virtuous impulsion for whole night and for a whole day just as a healthy man, after arising from his
seat could stand for a whole day. He just stated what it’s like, what’s the gold standard of fully
achieving the first dhyāna. You can meditate for 24 hrs straight. Flawless. A lot of people; drives me,
doesn’t drive me crazy but it’s disappointing that it’s so much in the air and the popular literature and
the vipassana movement primarily especially, modern Theravada, you know, achieving the first dhyāna
in a month, achieve it in a weekend, got it , oh lost it, where’d I put it, (laughter) where’d I put it ? You
know (laughter). You know, it’s just like they’re, you know, they’re ignoring the greatest commentator
in the whole tradition. They say ‘oh but that was Buddhaghoṣa’s view but we’re reading the Pali canon’
and then of course they give you something easier. And like one person who wrote to me, his teacher,
who is a very, very renowned teacher, considered to be an authority, on dhyāna’s, told the student, who
wrote to me, he wrote to me, ‘I’ve achieved the first dhyāna’. Well he was told by his teacher he has.
‘And I’m overcome by lust.’ Well! That just makes no sense at all. That’s kind of like, you’re kidding
right? I mean you don’t even know the first thing about the first dhyāna. I mean literally you don’t
know the first thing that you’re free of the five obscurations? I didn’t need to be an Albert Einstein to
find that passage; it’s in English. If you’ve achieved access to the first dhyana, let alone the first
dhyāna, you’re free of the five obscurations. The first one of those is craving for the allures of the
desire realm, like sex!! There’s no craving for it. And this person still felt he’d achieved the first dhyana
and then wondered, ‘Oh I got so much lust coming, what shall I do?’ I say this with absolutely no
sarcasm or condescension, it’s just that he was misled. But when our own buddhist teachers misled us
then what on the hell are we supposed to do then? Because they’re the people we rely upon.
[1:07:28] So this is where my passion comes from. If you can’t rely on buddhist teachers to learn about
buddhism where else are you going to go? We’re failing if we misled people and keep on pulling
dharma down to our size rather than saying - hey this is a very high mountain let’s get cracking and see
if we can climb the actual mountain, the gold standard and not keeping it down,, bringing it down to
fool’s gold. And it’s happening all over the place. Really it’s happening a lot. Happens not just in
Theravadan Buddhism, it happens in Tibetan buddhism, it happens in Chan and Zen, it happens in
Christianity and Hinduism. We’re living in a really degenerate era, that’s what it really is, but we don’t
have to be degenerate. And we can find out what the authentic teachings are.
[1:07:55] So one more passage from the Aṅguttara Nikāya Thus this radiant citta exists whether or
not it is obscured with defilements or free of them. This is not a direct quote. But Buddhaghoṣa refers
to this radiant mind, Buddhaghoṣa refers to this radiant mind that the Buddha himself referred to as -
naturally pure. And he gives the source of this in the Aṅguttara Nikāya. The early suttas discuss dying
and going to sleep as parallel states so make it really, really clear, we’re talking about the same thing
here. When you die and when you fall deep asleep you’re going to the bhavanga, with dreamless sleep
a state of uninterrupted bhavanga, ok? It’s totally rings a bell, right? It’s got to be referring to the same
thing as the substrate consciousness because every single marker is the same.
[1:08:43] Now we have another text I’ve cited before, I love it, the Milindapañha, that is this
conversation with Nagasena and King Milinda. In this, and I show exactly pagination, here Nagasena
compares it, the bhavanga, to the radiance of the sun, for it is naturally pure and radiant. It is the
resting ground state of consciousness which is not turned toward the senses. You do not see the
senses. You’re deep asleep. You’re dead. You’ve achieved shamatha so your five physical senses are
not open and clear; you are not picking up any appearances, at all. Access to the first dhyāna. He writes
with enormous authority. This is an arhat speaking. Which is not terms of source and it acts as the
foundation for the process of non-karmically-active life, of which it is the characteristic factor: the
state it returns to when not doing anything else. When the mind is not involved in javana, in activities,
it returns to its base, its ground of becoming, its substrate consciousness. The equation of the
bhavanga with the radiant citta that the Buddha referred to, this citta, this citta. The equation of the
bhavanga with the radiant citta is directly asserted in the commentaries as well as in the
Milindapañha which cites similies indicating that while the normal functioning of citta is like light,
which may be cut off, which may get cut off, the bhavanga citta of dreamless sleep has a radiance
which exists whether or not it is obscured.
[1:10:09] So the nature of the substrate consciousness, the bhavanga, is the nature of light, it doesn’t go
out, it just gets obscured. Whereas the clarity in the ordinary waking state gets very dull, as if you slip
into stupor in the fourth state prior to achieving shamatha. The Kathāvatthu calls it the citta of the
very last moment of a person’s life. You have no sensory experience in the very last moment of your
life; that should be patently obvious. So the notion of your senses being clear and picking up, or that
appearances come to you, is not true. It’s just not true at all, ok. So unless all including the Buddha and
these great commentaries, the Arhat, the Kathāvatthu, unless they’re all wrong, then Karma Chagmé,
when he’s saying your senses are clear he’s not referring to access, he’s referring to the eighth stage.
Asaṅga, if we need another authority, Asaṅga, writes With the achievement of śhamatha, and I quote
due to the absence of mindfulness and mentation, these are factors of the coarse mind, when the
meditative object is dissolved and released, the mind rests in the absence of appearances. That’s
unequivocal. His brother, Vasubandhu, who writes with equal authority, he says With the achievement
of śamatha, technically known as threshold to the first dhyana, the five senses, the five physical
senses are dormant. I give the source. Total agreement between Theravada and the Indian Mahayana.
[1:11:41] Tsongkapa, in his great, great lam rim, The Great Exposition of the Stages of the Path:
Therefore, the śamatha that serves as the basis for vipaśyāna by which one achieves the ārya paths
of all stream-returners and once-returners…is the threshold to the first dhyāna. So that’s what you
need. That’s the minimum amount of shamatha, threshold to the first dhyāna. In order to become
stream enterer and so forth you’ve got to have that in addition of course -vipashyana. Unequivocal. His
says in The Medium Exposition of the Path, At that time, while in meditative equipoise no
appearances of your own body and so on arise, and there is a sense as if the mind has become
indivisible with space. When rising from that state, it is as if the body suddenly comes into being.
Whoosh! But there were no appearances. Completely contrary to what Karma Chagme Rinpoche said.
Which somebody is profoundly wrong if he was referring to access to the first dhyana. But nobody is
wrong. If he’s referring to what the Karmapa said hey, if you can’t get full access well at least go for
the eighth stage. That’s really, really good samadhi. Tshongkapa continues, All samādhis prior to the
achievement of the samādhi of the threshold (to the first dhyana) are single-pointed attention of the
desire realm. So judging by the great treatises, there seem to be very few who achieve even śamatha.
Because they’re not trying. If you think it’s not necessary, why try? And this is in the fourteenth
century.
[1.13.28] The Vajra Essence. This is now Padmasambhava, Vajra Essence. Can you stand it? [laughter]
It’s ten past [ time ] . Cos tomorrow we have off right? I thought it would nice to round this off. Here’s
Vajra Essence, the love of my life. Now to remain for a long time in the domain of the essential
nature of mind, I shall be watchful. Essential nature of mind is substrate consciousness. We know that
by context. This is a quotation. This is what you’re telling yourself. Now, to remain for a long time in
the domain of the essential nature of the mind, I shall be watchful, observing motion, keeping my
body straight, and maintaining vigilant mindfulness. End of quotes. When you say this and practice
it, fluctuating thoughts do not cease; however, mindful awareness exposes them, so you don’t get
lost in them, as usual. By applying yourself to this practice continuously at all times, both during
and between meditation sessions, eventually all coarse and subtle thoughts will be calmed in the
empty expanse of the essential nature of your mind. Substrate, substrate consciousness. I say that
definitively. You will become still, in an unfluctuating state in which you experience bliss like the
warmth of a fire, luminosity like the dawn, and non-conceptuality like an ocean unmoved by waves.
Yearning for this and believing in it, you will not be able to bear being separated from it, and you
will hold fast to it. If you get caught up in bliss, this will cast you into the desire realm; if you get
caught up in luminosity, this will propel you into the form realm; if you get caught up in which
means grasp onto, prefer, identify with non-conceptuality, this will launch you to the peak of
mundane existence. That’s in the formless realm. Therefore, understand that while these are
indispensable signs of progress This is a straight translation, these are indispensable signs of progress
for individuals entering the path, it is a mistake to get caught up in them indefinitely. Ok? Authority
of Padmasambhava. No interpretation. He just said what he meant. This is called ordinary śamatha of
the path, and if you achieve stability in it for a long time, you will have achieved the critical feature
of stability in your mindstream. However, know that among unrefined people in this degenerate era,
very few appear to achieve more than fleeting stability.
[1.15.43] That’s 19th century. One might think - oh that must be incredibly difficult that’s why nobody
is doing it cos it’s incredibly….I don’t think so. If you’re not doing it, you don’t achieve it. If you’re
just doing three year retreats and at most maybe do a month, who’s going to achieve shamatha in a
month? Yeah, if you’re a Mozart of shamatha sure but if otherwise forget about it. And if you don’t
even do a month, so you’re doing three years and don’t have any shamatha, this means you’re doing
three years of maybe stage two or three samadhi. And you may do two three year retreats and three year
retreats but if your level of samadhi is still stage two or three or something like that or four or five
you’re not even close to shamatha. Where’s path? Where’s any sign of any possibility? Do ten three
year retreats. If you’re not practicing and achieving shamatha and you’re not practicing vipassana -
you’re just doing a whole heck of a lot of stage of generation practice, how does it ever turn into a
path? Do it for a hundred lifetimes, how does it turn into a path? Or are you just doing discursive
meditations and lam rim never getting around to shamatha/vipassana. Reciting zillions of mantras, very
good and very virtuous, but where is shamatha/vipassana? Theravada tradition vipassana, vipassana,
where is shamatha? Zen where’s shamatha? You know. So it’s rare. I mean Tsongkapa said it in the
fourteenth century, Dudjom Lingpa, Padmasambhava says it in the 9th century, I think that’s just
because everybody’s busy. [laughter] They’re either too busy with samsara or they’re too busy leaping
to more advanced practices that, you know, six yogas of naropa, stage of generation/completion, tomo,
Dzogchen, Mahamudra and so forth, and they just forget the basics. And you see now I’m citing...I
don’t want anybody to think ‘oh in Alan’s view’. Who cares what Alan’s view is? I don’t care what
Alan’s view is. [laughter] Really, why would anyone care what my view is? I’m a Mr Nobody. Not
even a geshe or a tulku or a khenpo or nothing. I’m not even a professor. [laughter] Nothing. But
Düdjom Lingpa, Padmasambhava, Asanga, Shantideva, Vasubandhu, Buddhagosa, Buddha, they are
somebody. If one ignores them, ok, you can, but then maybe you’re missing something.
[1:17:57] O Vajra of Mind, the rope of mindfulness and firmly maintained attention is dissolved by
the power of meditative experience, until finally the ordinary mind of an ordinary being disappears,
as it were. Consequently, compulsive thinking subsides, and roving thoughts vanish into the space of
awareness. You then slip into the vacuity of the substrate, in which - self, others, and objects,
disappear. By clinging to the experiences of vacuity and luminosity while looking inward, the
appearances of self, others, and objects, vanish. This is the substrate consciousness. Some teachers
say that the substrate to which one descends, to which you descend, is ‘freedom from conceptual
elaboration’ That’s the second of the four yogas, they’re complete bonkers or one taste, they think it’s
the third one. You know. But others say it is ethically neutral. Whatever they call it in truth you’ve
come to the essential nature (of the mind). You’ve come to the ground state. The relative ground state
of the mind. Not emptiness, not shunuta, but you’ve come to that.
[1.19.03] And so that’s the result of my investigations over 20 years. But then does this mean that the
whole Kagyu tradition, cos what Karma Chagme said was very representative. It was not an
iconoclastic. Does this mean that the Kagyu tradition since the 17th century or earlier has been missing
the boat, none of them, achieving the path? Oh wow, too bad, but at least the Gelupas have their act
together. And the Ningmas have Dzogchen if they’re really following Düdjom Lingpa. I don’t believe
that. I don’t believe that. And I think this is what’s happening. This is my interpretation. If you’ve
achieved the eight out of nine stages on the path of shamatha, you are really somewhere. You’re way,
way up on the path. You have superb samadi and you can remain in it for hours on end and you can
remain in it effortlessly and have no laxity or excitation even on a subtle level. And so here’s my
interpretation. Because I’ve great respect for the Kagyu. This is the tradition of Milarepa, and so forth.
The great beings. Right on through you know, recent history. And here’s my interpretation. That
Karmapa himself said that if you can achieve access to the first dhyana that’s best but if you can’t or
you just decide, ok maybe I won’t go there as straight shamatha, he said well achieve the eighth stage -
single pointed attention, that’s the name of the eighth stage. And then what? Start practising
vipashyana. Take this mighty samadhi you’ve developed which is incredibly good. It’s not shamatha,
it’s not full-fledged shamatha but it’s really good samadhi and use it. Instead of just focusing on
awareness or just focusing on space of the mind, use it now. [Tibetan?1:20:36] ……, probe into the
origins, location and destination of your mind, go right into vipassana, bring this mighty, mighty mind
of samadhi with you and then achieve shamatha, focus on emptiness. Sooner or later you’ve got to
achieve shamatha. You can’t just skip it. And it’s with that fusion of shamatha and vipassana that you
achieve the first yoga. That’s universally stated. The fusion of shamatha and vipassana, vipassana on
emptiness - that’s when you really achieve the first of the four yogas, right? So in other words they’re
fine. This is just a strategic manoeuvre, a slight manoeuvre; don’t just stay in shamatha when you’re on
stage eight. It’s like, you know, when I was in high school I was one of the brighter kids and we had the
choice if we wanted to skip the senior high school and go right to university. A number of us had that
choice.
[1.21.27] Thubten Chodron, you know Thubten Chodron? We were high school buddies. She took that
option, so she went off to USC. She skipped senior year. I kind of liked being at high school so I
stayed. [laughter] Ah but she skipped it. Well that doesn’t mean that she’s a high school dropout.
[laughter] Nah, she went to college a year early. Right? These are the bright kids, you know advanced
placement kids. Not genius but you know bright. And so that’s what they’ve done. They’ve just
skipped, you know, the senior year of shamatha, go right into vipashyana, and then they achieved
shamatha in vipashyana. She picked up her senior year in college, in university. You know, it’s just a
slight variation of technique. It’s not like they blew it. If they never get around to achieving shamatha at
all, if they never get around to vipashyana, if they never get around to achieving the eight stage out of
nine, they’re just piddling around in stage 2, 3, 4 something like that, then there’s no path. It doesn’t
matter who they are, Kagyu, Gelug, Ningma, it doesn’t matter. ‘Cos shamatha/vipashyana is the core of
all buddhist meditation. To draw an analogy and then we’ll finally let you go. Gen Lamrimpa with
whom I lived for a year in the same cabin, when we were in the state of Washington for the one year
shamatha retreat. He commented, now here’s a yogi’s yogi. This is Milarepa style yogi and his guru, [?
1:22:49] Rinpoche, unbelievable. Real Milarepa. They just lived up in caves and Gen Jampa
Wangdu…… ah he was another of my teachers. He spent like 35 years in retreat. Lama Zopa Rinpoche
has enormous regard for him, said he’d achieved shamatha. Gen Jampa Wangdu is one of my gurus,
Gen Jampa Wangdu went up to [? 1.23.10] ….. Rinpoche up in the mountains there and Gen Lamrimpa
didn’t but he then met with these, or studied or trained under these great yogis in India. And so he
really knows the yogic tradition within the Gelupa tradition. He was 100% Geluga although later His
Holiness encouraged him to study Dzogchen, which he did. And he liked it. But my point is very
simple He said ‘within this Gelupa tradition, for those of us really dedicated to the yogic path, the
contemplative path, here’s something we commonly we do’. Because we invited him to America to
lead a shamatha retreat and His Holiness said ‘yes please go’. And that’s why it happened.
[1.23.40] And he said here’s what Gen Lamrimpa said - for us you know in the twentieth century
practicing within the Gelugpa tradition and really devoted to contemplative life; and he did it for like
30 years, full time. Meditating, towards the end of his life, he was meditating from 5 o’clock in the
morning till 1 o’clock in the morning. Yeah!! That’s a yogi’s yogi. So I’m embarrassed to even refer to
myself as a meditator, a yogi, when I know that’s the professional level. Four hours in between but
otherwise it’s 5 till 1. Not 1 till 5, 5 till 1. [laughter] That kind of yogi. So when I hear you know
scientific studies in the media, ‘oh we studied some advanced mediators’, yeah yeah yeah yeah.
[laughter] Uh hah, uh hah, yeah sure. ‘Oh you’ve done a 3 month retreat, oh wow. Oh you’ve done a 3
year retreat. Wow.’ So if I’m not impressed; I’m not impressed with me. I’m wow, what a
disappointment. Gen Lamrimpa said this, cut to the chase, we all break for the weekend. In our
tradition he said it’s common for us for us Gelugpa yogis, within shamatha, straight shamatha, to
achieve just stage five. Go to stage five, just straight shamatha. Whether it’s focus on Buddha image,
focus on mind, we will go up to stage five. At that point you’re free of coarse excitation; you’re free of
coarse laxity. You’ve crossed the threshold, you’re not stuporing out, you know. Stage five is pretty
darn good samadhi. Free of coarse laxity, free of coarse excitation, this is good. And then we’ll l go to
stage of generation. And if we really proceed along the path we’ll achieve shamatha within the stage of
generation, or if you want to follow Mahamudra, we’ll achieve shamatha within Mahamudra. You want
to go to vipashyana, we’ll achieve shamatha in vipashyana. But just flat simple shamatha, you just go
to stage five and then we apply that to fully achieving shamatha. If we go that far, within stage of
generation within vipashyana, within, you know - Mahamudra, Dzogchen. So it’s technique. But none
of them say - oh you can just skip shamatha. Like who needs that? Ok. Have I made my case?
[laughter] Ok. It’s all intended only to try to be helpful. I get no joy whatsoever about criticising
anybody, believe it or not, but I really get no joy out of it. I find it very tiresome and very sad, when I
see people muddying the water, peeing into the city well. I don’t like to criticise that, but if it’s
happening, you know, if you don’t call any attention to it, like - ohhh lets all be nice to each other. Let’s
be nice but let’s not, you know; as they say in the mid-west don’t let your mind be so open your brain
falls out. [laughter]
Olaso, so enjoy your weekend practice all the time. [laughter] See you on Sunday morning.
Transcribed by Julie Myatt
Revised by Rafael Carlos Giusti
Final edition by Cheri Langston