The Way of Shamatha Retreat with Alan Wallace (1/26)

I'm very happy to see all of you to be with you again it's been a few years since I've returned to the San Francisco South Sydney so a privilege and delight to be with you to share the Dharma with you so thank you for having me back as you know the topic the theme that we'll be focusing on it's as good is it blurry it's blurry isn't it so we can why don't we try to fix that now cuz I can also hear it's blurry and then it can be hard even if it's loud it's hard to understand so if we can fix that I don't think it's too too close it has I think is over in the the background machinery so I surely keep on speaking okay we'll just so the topic for this week-long retreat as you know is shemitah I've been teaching summit I think now for 43 years but as the years the decades have gone by I've taught a broader and broader range of meditations while leading retreats the first one in 1976 I was teaching schemata and the four applications of mindfulness I to a small group of cow herders in Switzerland up in the Alps very romantic but when I'm invited to a place that they've never taught before or invited back to a place I have taught before I was specifically asked this time to return to the topic of shamaton which I thought here maybe 10 years ago maybe even longer long time ago but when I'm coming to a new place I very much like to begin with shemitah because it's good for everyone it's helpful for everyone that wishes to apply themselves to the practice whether they're terrified a Buddhist or Mayan or of Audrianna whether or whether Buddhist or non-buddhists whether the religious or not religious Yesi I think many people nowadays even with no interest in any kind of religion and no interest in any type of meditation that many people like that of course recognize that their attention skills could be better and if they had better attention skills being able to pay attention and not get tighter and tighter and not get wandering not get spaced out it would help them in every aspect of their lives and for much of the history of modern psychology right through the 20th century it was wild widely assumed even by some of the greats like one of my heroes William James that attention cannot be trained it was hard to even studied the plasticity of attention was hardly studied in the 20th century lived along the 19th and so the kind of practices in the background theory that we'll be investigating over this week is enormous ly relevant for simply purely secular discipline of cognitive psychology but as we turn to content ative life there's no doubt in my mind that the precision the clarity the depth the efficacy of the practice that we will be exploring could be embraced lock stock and barrel into an entirely different framework worldview this practice I think maybe even without exception all the practices that I'll be teaching over this week I'm very confident could be taken exactly as they are and thoroughly embedded in a Christian context and they would be Christian meditations they can be taken out and put into a Jewish or a Taoist or a Hindu and they in other words it's like a stem cell it will it can become a Christian or it can become purely secular and leave it as secular and it's really beneficial and you don't have to wait months years or lifetimes before you see the difference would be see the benefit of the practices you will see that for yourself I slowly expect then in one week you'll see some of the benefits and that may inspire you to want to engage in these practices further and dig deeper dig deeper see you is there an upper limit is there a ceiling to the benefits you can receive from practicing engaging in these practices that I'll share with you so I very much like to begin with schemata and as we go deeper into the teachings even this morning I think we'll see the kind of questions that are raised in terms of motivation why one wouldn't do something like follow one's breath it's kind of boring at least the beginning observing one's mine why would one do that observing a nature of awareness itself why would one do that you know and as I think would become increasingly evident over this week these practices together with a theory that accompanies them enriches them in terms of our understanding of context they are we a response to a question or even a yearning that I think all of us already experience regardless of being deeply religious in some other tradition or not religious or anti-religious and that is the question that is with so many tibetan lamas bring to our attention the very beginning of a dhamma talk and that is all sentient beings not only all human beings are wishing to be a pre or suffering - wishing to be free of suffering and to find happiness some people might debate that point that to my mind it's all self-evident but it does raise then immediately and again this is just very introductory talked and today we'll have a course a shorter morning session and then tomorrow we'll be into the flow but the notion that we all wish to be happy and all of Buddha Dharma is addressed to this yearning to be free of suffering and divine Venus free of sufferings kind of straightforward nobody wakes up in the morning thing I think today's a good day for suffering let's kind of count that in a good dose of morning suffering might be helpful maybe misery in the morning and pain in the afternoon yet kind of just just to get things spicy you know I don't think anybody thinks that way but in terms of yearning for happiness as well see there's gonna be this can be full morning I think what do you have in mind when we think of an attorney that I'm gonna be using a lot I think is sustainable this is one of the most important terms in English language now sustainable economy sustainable energy we are destroying our planet how can we not do that and make this a stainable environment for our own species and all the other ones that are our neighbors on this planet so sustainability is one of the most important and so happiness can Happiness be sustainable and is that even a good thing is this something that you would aspire for it would be always happy and I would to speak first person I can't I don't know your minds but if somebody came to me and said Alan we have some kind of electrical stimulus and some supplements you can take every day and there's very good solid science behind this and it's gonna so top off your dopamine and serotonin levels and a little bit of electrical stimulation here and there just we need it that we can tell you with no negative side effects there's the thought experiment of course with no side effects at all we can just make you happy from now on so you'll just be grinning all day long and all your dreams be happy dreams and you wake up and given and even just a tsunami has just wiped out quarter of a million people and your mother has just died and your child is you just suffer it's just diagnosed with leukemia you can tell I don't want that I always say I don't know thank you thanks for the offer but no thanks absolutely and then frankly I don't even want it for one day because it's completely empty happiness like they speak of empty carbs it's basically just carved if there's no no real news value something like that that's empty happiness there's nothing behind it you're not really happy about anything this is just reacting to the chemicals in your brain and I don't really want that kind of happiness when I'm happy there are chemicals my brain fine you can tag along but I don't want my happiness triggered by drugs or alcohol or electric stimulation thanks but no thanks I have no interest in empty happiness and I don't want to be happy in that way I like enjoying really good food I like enjoying a wonderful conversation I like Beautif beautifully beautiful H er and beautiful me I'd like that I like spikes I like occasions of just being really joyful oh it wasn't a wonderful symphony wasn't that a great walk wasn't that it's sure I like that but I don't want that all the time I don't want to be monochrome I don't want to have one mood all day long even if I could I don't want it and so that's what we mean that I want to be happy all the time I don't want to be happy all the time but now let's take another thought experiment if somebody can say Ellen we've been working in really outstanding science we've been working with nutrition and we've been working with supplements and we've been working with exercise and we can give you now routine that is very doable a complete thought experiment of course and we can now guarantee you if you follow this routine you'll be healthy for the rest of your life until you just basically die because your body's worn out would you like to be healthy every single day from now on yeah I would I don't really want to have sick days what's what's the upside of that I've had so much sickness I know what it's like I can empathize no problem but if I could be healthy every day from now on yeah why not sure what's the upside of coming down with the flu or having tuberculosis or I don't see any upside I'd be happy to be healthy how about if somebody could say if you follow this regimen you can be mentally healthy for the rest of your life and that's gonna give you a broad bandwidth at the emotions you experience sometimes sorrow sometimes joy sometimes fear sometimes fear is very healthy reality-based fear very good good yes sometimes fear fearing for others bring one say yeah cars coming I want to be afraid so I got all of them all the blood going down my legs and nothing my head so I can move out of the way fast we will give you the full repertoire of meaningful healthy emotions but will simply see that your mind is healthy exceptionally healthy are you interested in that that you'll be mentally healthy I have a sense of mental well-being knowing there will be sad days and better days and sometimes grief-stricken days and days where there's fear and so forth I'd say you come in I would like that that's what we're talking about here the Shama to practice will be exploring are not going to make you happy all the time and if you want that I think probably you need to go find the right drugs and they'll probably kill you sooner or later but until they do and people like drugs apparently so that type of well-being that I'd be very happy to be mentally healthy and experience the symptom of having a very balanced healthy mind from now on and then explore is there an upper ceiling is there some upper limit to which you can't be healthier than this you can't be more mentally balanced than this is there such a ceiling and my strong strong sense is there is no upper ceiling schemata is about very simply put it's about developing exceptional mental health and well-being and experiencing the wealth the well-being the genuine well-being that arises from having a wonderfully balanced and healthy mind where there's multi-faceted it's not a religion it's not a silver bullet just do this and everything will be fine but whatever other practices one is doing whether the Christian the Jesus Prayer or its Sufi you dervish dancing or its Hindu pranayama and hustling and so forth at the asanas and so forth if we can't focus if our tension skills are really rather poor that when they're trying to focus on something readers start spacing out attention deficit disorder or we start getting distracted and fidgety attention hyperactivity disorder then whatever you're doing you'll not be to use a very ordinary term you will not be offering to that task your optimal performance you'll not be at your best if you can't even focus your attention because everything comes from that so sha mata is above all about developing our tension skills we do survive the cultivation of mindfulness introspection developing Samadhi and Samadhi among those rehire trainings and Buddhism first of all ethics then Samadhi MN wisdom Samadhi the small small meaning the narrow meaning of Samadhi is single pointed attention its concentration being able to focus and not necessarily tight and small but with a unified mind it's the opposite of distraction opposite of multitasking it is giving your whole attention your hearts and mind focusing on your child when you're speaking your spouse your work your creativity for that matter skiing and athletics and so forth but being totally present and totally focused something large something small something relatively static something radically dynamic that you're giving your whole attention to whatever you're attending to and my sense generally is if something is not worth giving my full attention to it's probably not worth giving any of my attention to that's my sense this is my opinion so the schemata is a response to questions everyone is asking many people especially in our modern world I think is an a DAT ADHD century we built up to a 20th century and I was coming into full bloom where normal as ADHD attention problems lack of peace of mind being over stimulated by information by just stimuli of all kinds and having no peace of mind no inner stillness no inner calm and having no idea no taste no intimation that our own minds could be a true source of genuine wellbeing for us without any stimulation coming in at all this is ancient wisdom its wisdom of Socrates of Shankara of Buddha of st. Augustine so the teachings on schemata are quarter Buddhism if you are a Buddhist contemplative and you're skipping schemata you're a partial put his contemplatively practice is not complete and that's simply true you must develop your attention skills to apply to everything else whether it's working on a Zen koan whether it's patting satipatthana or mindfulness meditation the pasta in the Terracotta tradition whether you're a Vaudrey and a practitioner whether you're cultivating the six perfections if you're not including in your repertoire of practices schemata development of attention skills then whatever you do you'll not be doing it as well as you could have schemata I like to think and I take very seriously schemata is the servant of every other meditation you may engage in within the Buddhist context if you're a Christian and you're practicing Shama it will be the servant of every aspect of your worship your prayer your meditation your service to others Shama - will be there to aid you it is your servant it will serve everything else you do in your interrelationship with others and Anna solitude of your own prayer your worship your meditations so I'm very I'm have my enthusiasm for geometry is unbridled and I don't know how many times I thought I taught it but I think your witness very quickly that my enthusiam has not abated abated one jot or tittle I've been looking at the Johnson tittle and neither one of them two degrees so all the dots are still as jati as they ever were and that tittles are just fiddling away you know I really have just unbridled enthusiasm for this because I just see it as to obey me it is just totally good so that's geometer and so for this non-residential retreat I can tell you the overall format this morning is an exception because we had to have rest registrations so since we do break it twelve o'clock am I am I correct 12:30 okay well it's from 12:00 10:20 I would unless you really need it maybe I just like a show of hands because the day is this morning is anomaly right all the other mornings we start at nine o'clock and go to 12:30 a break well of course be awakened no question so okay that'll be from tomorrow from from tomorrow on and with this number of people I think will probably need 20 minutes for bathroom break and so forth and if you need more then we'll just add on another five and so everybody can do whatever they need to do going to the loo or having freak whatever you need to do but we'll make sure everybody has the leisure to get the break you need so I'd like to show of hands right now we have them from 10 20 till a wee tad so two hours and ten minutes that's right in the border I know I won't need a break but that's just me I would like to ask right now this is what we're looking at two hours two thousand ten minutes would you like a break within the two hour 20 minute ten minutes or can we just go straight through it's it really up to you I won't need it but if you do it will happen so how many would people like it would have to be a 20-minute break because this is a lot of people here how many people would like a 20-minute break just this morning within a two-hour 10 minute then you may take a break but I think just slip away and slip right back in because if you need it you need it and I don't want you to be uncomfortable it's very important to me so okay that's good and then from now on then in the afternoon again so 20 in the afternoon it's from one two o'clock and I'm going a remedy brought Rhonda you can tell me I just haven't memorized the can you just tell me I'm not wearing my glasses just yet you just tell me the afternoon session today is for my session it's 12:00 okay that's good then then should be fine we're going only an hour in 40 minutes that's cool yes okay today is we always were always aiming at noon then jollywood and then we're recommencing at 1:30 and going from one kata to 1 2 to 3:30 very broad and then I will turn the baton over to the next generation the old guy is gonna govern I don't actually don't nap but I'll go off and enjoy not teaching for them and I'll turn you over an hour introduce Eva it's afternoon so there's that so that's the schedule that's very good yeah and so starting tomorrow starting this afternoon when I'm on duty I'm active duty then starting tomorrow morning from nine to twelve then we will meet just so you know the format what to anticipate I'll usually just not always give some preparatory comments not too long maybe five ten minutes but I hope not more and then we'll go right into meditation while you're still those chairs look okay and not great but okay okay enough that you should be comfortable you know when you're when you're just sitting down so before you start getting uncomfortable because of the chair or sitting cross-legged brief preparatory comment and then go right into a 24 minute session and they'll be guided and then we'll take our break and then and then I give it to a talk and then roughly halfway through then we'll take a 20-minute break and if it need to be longer it'll be longer we'll come back and again we'll go right into meditation 24 minutes hopefully not too long not too short and then talk and then for the afternoon it's with two hours with me so we'll not take it will not take a break in two hours but again after preparatory come talk right into meditation and then Adama talk afterwards and then in the afternoon is the final session then Eva who I will introduce later but not right now then she'll take over and she I understand because we converse upon this we have were working in tandem here then she will give a guided meditation some talk relatively short but there will be it will be a time for discussion question and answer and I think you will find that she is very well prepared to respond and fill that role you will see and so that'll be the format and that'll be for the rest of the of the week so that's format and so now let's turn to this question and this this statement that we hear so often from Tibetan Lamas especially and I think I've probably heard hundreds of Dhamma talks starting with all sentient beings of wishing to be free of suffering and define happiness pleasure joy and the whole of Dhamma specifically buddhadharma is a response to questions people are already asking and if they're animals they may not be able to articulate it but any animal in any century being would rather not have pain would like to be not pain rather than pain and if there's some joy some pleasure even having a good meal or being in a warm place it's comfy we'd prefer that to being experiencing discomfort and so the buddhadharma is really the whole of the buddha dharma the dharma taught by the Buddha is a response to yearning that we already have it's not trying to persuade us to want something we never thought about but responding in depth and with all the intelligence we can possibly muster to bring intelligence we want to be free of suffering but we are so intelligent relative to all of the species on the planet of animals are closest being gorillas chimpanzees we're so phenomenally more intelligent than ours just the way it is in terms of memory language skills imagination the ability to accrue knowledge throughout the course of a life and from generation to generation citing people who live 2,500 years ago only human beings do that so we have extraordinary level of intelligence and one of the most important ways to apply our intelligence whoever we are whether religious philosophers scientists is to understand causality we want to be happy just generally speaking want to be happy you want to be free of suffering but that's not enough we need then if you want to have to be happy then you don't just pray to Buddha or God or anybody else or your dad or anybody else please make me happy you need to look in this world what actually are the causes and conditions within this world that is empirically evident to us kind of especially internal causes give rise to happiness and what are the internal causes they give rise to suffering you know all kinds of external things can catalyze being happy happy I'm happy at this I'm happy at that I'm unhappy about this I'm not happy about that but frankly I think as we get older it just becomes more painfully obvious but we have almost no control over offer of our over our environment other people's behavior our politicians in finances in world economics and so forth one individual versus the planet it looked like vanishingly small so if our happiness is fundamentally or if we think that our happiness our well-being our distress or unhappiness is fundamentally correlated directly to external circumstances over which we have almost no control at all then we just know that we are leaves blown in the wind and the Buddha said that's not true and I know this not to be true and you can know it too but it's not so obvious but even now I know I know that it is obvious I've been around for several decades now going to live in Dharamsala when I was twenty-one years old living in a community of refugees who was Exodus traumatic exodus from tibet was very recent and finding coming from a really a very fortunate background with loving parents living in Europe and Scotland and Israel and America good education loving parents I mean really there was just nothing to complain about I had a very fortunate childhood and upbringing two good years of university and then left because I was dissatisfied making my way to a refugee community where everybody was poor it was just how poor are you but nobody was middle-class and wealthy forget about it you know and finally I was living with the happiest people I'd ever met in my life as a community not just amongst and Yogi's and the Rinpoche's but living in the village I mean this is not airy-fairy when I was living in that village for four years and the townspeople they're not always happy happy happy but there was a level of well-being of warmth of kindness a friendliness cheerfulness having recently suffered inconceivable trauma I've seen your civilization destroyed all that you cherish most being stamped upon who can say that's easy so this was not a happy little summer camp that I was going to this was a refugee community and sickness was rampant I got sick a lot and they were I was astonished to see not only was i drawn to buddhadharma but whatever they got I want some of that that kind of thing you know let alone the monks and the rim BOJ's the lamas the Yogi's oh I want a big dose of that please but even in the village how is that possible they could have been so traumatized when to flee even Tibet they would mich be machine-gunned I knew a lot of these people they would they were fleeing and if they got caught they got in the sights while the do buddies shut down just for trying to get out of the country and that was thousands that died that way these were people I knew how is that possible that you can lose everything you cherish be in an environment that could hardly be more different from Tibet India they may as well go to Brazil or Switzerland what so it won't be nice that really caught my attention that their happiness was not contingent on fortunate felicitous circumstances and then we all know if we're paying attention at all there can be people who are surrounded by the most felicitous and still unhappy I wouldn't say I was unhappy when I was 20 but I was profoundly existentially dissatisfied and I didn't see anywhere on the Rison anything that gave me any hope of finding the satisfaction the fulfillment the genuine well-being that I was seeking and that's why I just left the whole of Western civilization and so Dharma if we just go to this term which we cannot translate because there's no English term for it Dharma is a way of viewing reality and engaging with reality that gives rise that cultivates cultivates the seed of genuine well-being and gradually attenuates and diminishes and diminishes the inner seeds of unhappiness of distress Samet is crucial for that schemata is a series of methods they either work or they don't work if you're practicing geometry there's no mystery it's utterly transparent that's why I've worked extensively with scientists because it's so transparent and it's something they care about the Shah Mehta project now what is that 13 years ago so the Shama that we'll be focusing on is addressing this question again how can we be free of suffering especially mental between physical distress and mental distress I think we do actually care more about mental distress than physically we'd like to be free of both but they've had our choice we'd be free we choose to be free of mental distress there's a higher priority and in terms of just feeling really good physically or feeling good mentally again I think every sensible person would rather have a sense of well-being mentally than simply being really healthy who how can you really enjoy being physically healthy if you're mentally unhappy or neurotic or angry or depressed or anxious all the time but you look fantastic and your health is superb then you can't really enjoy it because we know the mind is more nuclear the mind is closer to our very sense of identity than the body and whether you're a materialist or a duelist or a pluralist like I am it's still true it's not it's not a learned attitude so where I would like to plunge in and I think I'll just cover this a bit and then while you're still hopefully comfortable we'll go right into annotation we will have that today this morning and it will be the foundation for all the meditation to come we want to find happiness you want to be free of suffering and what comes to mind what comes everybody I want to be happy sure sure what do you have in mind and how you gonna go about doing it you want to be happy great what do you have in mind and what are the causes that can get you there we are intelligent so we can't just want the effect and not care about the causes that's foolish that's just foolish I want to be a free of suffering but I don't care about the cause of everything then that's just foolish and we're not foolish we're very intelligent we have must we must have enough intelligence to figure this out it's not it's it's not inconceivably honored it's just a good challenge what are the actual causes of the type of well-being and happiness that is sustainable and meaningful what are the kinds of causes that give rise to suffering and distress anxiety despair what are the causes and I want to know about the internal causes I don't need to be told about outside everybody knows that we need unhappy about so many things we all know that you don't need me to tell you anything about that or what outwardly makes you happy you don't need me for anything for that but why can people be unhappy when everything outside is great why can be people be in will ain't happy when everything outside is miserable Dharamsala was a pretty peaceful Pleasant town but I have known a number of lamas who spent 15 or 20 years even in one case 35 years in concentration camp pauingassi autobiography of a monk I translated formic a number of times 35 years in a concentration camp and it wasn't just labour it was torture and starvation and labor it was pretty close to Auschwitz and eventually they released him and he came out without hatred without anger and he wasn't it was just an ordinary month yes doctor touka is not a scholar it's just a monk but he really tried to practice drama all the way through and he came out this the the miracle of his response was he came out having been tortured unbelievably and I heard in detail and coming out with no hatred no anger no vengeance but passionately and with strength is wiry wiry thin monk when I translated for him home maybe 20 years ago by now she would speak with passion she speak with strength and I never saw the hint of anger let alone hatred or vengeance or retaliation I never saw and he said no I do not feel that but I am speaking for human rights I am speaking for the end of torture I am speaking for the preservation of Tibetan culture and I'm not speaking against the Chinese people but I am speaking against the way they are torturing us and destroying our cult our culture so there was no mincing words with him but to come out of that with no hatred and I cannot say I'm not a psychologist but in my many conversations with him I found in being quite splendidly of sound mind so again no psychologist upfront today a PTSD one could imagine how could he not but as a layperson I never saw a sign 35 years others youngjun abuja got Shinobu chief lamas of mine 18 years and just not only getting through it without hatred getting through it and turning it into meditation into a meditation retreat and teaching their fellow inmates meditation while in retrieved or children imagej who I understand I have the tremendous honor of a city Eva where he had this had been sitting I think was 18 years not in prison but what's the difference he's he's stuck in a rupa in a kind of a basement or something in the you know in a room and he couldn't come out any never display himself as a lama they put him right into concentration camp so he stuck in a dungeon basically I mean with friends for 18 years and comes out as Saint I mean really a majestic human being we have to know how is that possible why are you not clinically depressed why didn't you commit suicide why you're not filled with hatred inventions why are you not suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder why are you not and it's Dharma there is an answer to that question there's Dharma so what kind of happiness shall we aspire for that's meaningful fulfilling deeply existentially satisfying and here are some of you but it's a fairly small fraction attended to talk I gave a couple of nights ago so there will be overlap not too bad - if something's important maybe not too bad to hear it twice reflect upon it deeply but I'll cite cite two people that I both deeply respect and one i profoundly revere I'm gonna invert this but on the Einstein first Einstein gets the first say so I'll change my notes I didn't see the sequence we're gonna start with Albert Einstein his brilliance is Vicis it needs no commentary but he was a formidable philosophical thinker I read a lot of his work and he thought deeply about philosophical issues he was not anti religious in any sense of the drum in fact he said all true scientists are deeply religious how about that he heard meant something very specific and he himself believed in God but Spinoza scott-so not the classical God of Abraham or Jesus or Muhammad Spinoza's God so but nevertheless the word God meant something to him it was not an empty empty box but very profound thinker philosophically as well as of course his reputation as a physicist and so when it came to well-being happiness then he made the statement that caught my attention first time I read it and I've quoted it many times Einstein tells us well-being and Happiness never appeared to me as an absolute aim I'm even inclined to compare such moral aims to the ambitions of a pig and that is to paraphrase that if if he should ask you what's your life about what's the purpose of your life what's the meaning of a life what are you aspiring for if you say I want to be happy he would sail as a big disappointment if I asked to pick that and pick it so I thought the pig would say the same thing you did I want to be happy I want to have a good food lots of mud sex once in a while I'd like to be the alpha pig if that can be arranged I know is I want to be the head of a corporation and have plenty of sex and fun and century enjoyments that's what a pig would say so there's nothing noble about that nothing noble at all so he's really very condescending deprecating if that's it if that's the best you got what's your life about I want to be happy Vinnie well I'm profoundly unimpressed because couldn't you come up with something that a pig couldn't come up with I don't think he's deprecating pigs he's just saying couldn't you do a little bit better than that so there's one view and I see well I really get it I think I know what you're talking about I get it I can't disagree with you if that's it kind of the happiness of can you just get me the right recipe of dopamine and serotonin and maybe a stimulation and so I I just want to be happy that kind of' a pug a pic the pig would go for it I won't and so but then we have the Dalai Lama I not only respect I revere him as my primary special spiritual mentor of my lamas since 1971 and he writes as he spoken many times I believe that the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness whether one believes in religion are not whether one believes in this religion or that religion we're all seeking something better in life and I'd like you to really focus on that we're all seeking something better in life so I think the very motion of our life is towards happiness at face value that looks like he just had a head-on collision with Einstein and these are two very brilliant men they are truly brilliant witness the brains of his home as many times and he's definitely in that category but are they then simply profoundly disagree with each other and I'd like to bring your attention especially to we're all seeking something better in life isn't that why you came isn't that why you hear that in the hopes anticipation that maybe I can offer something to you that will bring about something better in your life greater satisfaction but something better otherwise why be here now we all know you could be doing other things it would be very meaningful may give you a lot of pleasure or be very constructive but here you are and Here I am I didn't have to come here so I guess I came here seeking something better in life - not such luck for myself because I'm pretty contempt with imma see but having been the recipient of so much enormous kindness for my Lamas for 49 years if I said keep that all to myself and say thanks a million I'm gonna go off to my meditation Hut and I hope the other people I hope everybody else finds long as as good as you I cannot do that in good conscience at least not yet no purity guarantees but no I'm very happy to be here this is a way of repaying the kindness of my Lamas because I really don't need anything anymore I can live on Social Security and it's gonna start kicking in nicked April and set I've got security of course like it did I could die the day after it kicks in and I'd be kind of a bummer but really no worries no worries mate financially no worries but it's not only the kindness of my llamas for which I dude feel inexpressible ready dude but if I'd only received the help of my llamas for the last 49 years I would have starved to death I would have had no clothing and no shelter no transportation no communication I could have not made it through two weeks I think about two weeks you but now it's finished right and so the kindness of you your sin she being so you're a good sampling I've been the recipient of the kindness of sentient beings making the food making the clothing providing the transportation and the housing and so forth I don't know I don't know I've never sought a piece of clothing in my life I've grown very little in my life I'm not a farmer and so all I get is paper has very little nutritional value and so the fact that I'm he's still here alive and healthy is because of the kindness of sentient beings so I was told once by them by the Tibetan Tibetan doctor was a personal decision of his holiness he invited me into his home the day I arrived I had a letter of introduction to him enormous kindness he says he was the greatest about in position alive and he just passed away after being on active service seeing clients scores of clients every day after the age of about 94 I saw him just couple of years ago and the the row the line outside the queue but just just people just traveling all over India all over the world to have the consultation with him he invited me into his home the day I arrived and I lived with him I've translated for hundreds of times Tibet matters so I got a good dose of Tibetan medicine he saved my life at least once probably multiple times but he's also as a monk and he knew dharma very well and he made this comment is very simple he said when we consider the kindness of the Buddha's and all the emissaries of the Buddha's that the Buddha the Dhamma the Sangha all those who've carried the torch kept the flame alive these many centuries 100 generations since the passing of the Buddha when we consider the blessings the benefit that we received from the Buddha's the Buddhist actors the whole lineage of Lamas since the time of the Buddha on the one hand and the benefits we've received from sentient beings far nowadays how much of what I'm wearing comes from the hard work of people in China and Malaysia and Brazil and Mexico and Europe and so forth they've all benefited me I mean I stew for everybody isn't it and so the benefit receive from Senshi beings and benefit received from the object of Refuge he said if you say if you weigh these how do they come out and he said fifty-fifty it makes sense to me I'm sure he didn't mean it you know like not 5149 but overall yeah they're very comparable in in different ways and so repaying the kindness of my Lamas repaying the kindness of also chipping and not only human beings animals are fellow creatures they share the planet with us so that's why you still teaching it's really easy okay and not because there's anything really I don't see anything noble about my motivation but rather it would be disgraceful if I didn't you'd be ungrateful and disgrace if I didn't that's why I'm teaching so I really don't need anything here because I'd been already so blessed so are they really in diametric in diametric opposition here and I'm suggesting they're not it looks like a bit or not and that's because when Einstein spoke of happiness what came to his mind and when it's only Dalai Lama spoke of happiness and what came to his mind were very different not entirely dissimilar but very and significantly different and the difference has been known among the sages of the world among Socrates and Plato and Aristotle among Aquinas and Augustine and Buddha and Shankara and zhang xue'er and so forth the great Jewish theologians and so forth we find it in I haven't checked thoroughly but I'm just confident intuitively the distinction between these two types of happiness I'll just use the Greek terms cadonia and eudaimonia i'll definitely define them very shortly that it is it is universal and the definitions are very of course I'm just giving definitions that I find very meaningful and are definitely rooted in the Buddhist tradition because that's the one where I've been living for the last 49 years but it's the wisdom of east and west and it cuts through all religions and it's growing jumps out of the box of religion into philosophy and especially since the rise of positive psychology roughly twenty years ago it's jumped out of the boxes of religion and philosophy and into science good struck strong empirical experimental science it's called positive psychology and they're raising these terms so you're mentally healthy great that means you don't have a mental disease but is there anything can you do any better human being then simply not being mentally diseased that your psychoses are gone in your nerve and your neuroses are manageable that's all the hope that Freud ever gave us can you get by without calling attention to yourself can you be productive in the workplace okay your nerve you pass yeah you're neurotic but get over it well actually you won't but that's life what can you do I just summed up Freud in case you were that were pretty much cadonia I wanted to find it very precisely and not because it's the right definition there are many but I'm gonna give you a definition that is definitely completely in accord with Buddha Dhamma and therefore I think very compatible with other definitions from Aristotle and Socrates and so forth and he Adonia I will define cadonia or mundane happiness even coming from Buddhist tradition mundane pleasure like among the eight mundane concerns attachment to joy attach them to be free of pain that kind of happiness cadonia and I will define you don't have very much informed by my forty-nine years of training in Buddhism he'd only a mundane pleasure ordinary pleasure is stimulus driven pleasure and it's kind of pleasure joy happiness that arises in response to some Pleasant stimulus it's so it's not just it's not being hedonistic if we tell somebody you're very hedonistic that's pejorative your crude you're kind of rough you're just not cultured you're not be fine you're such a heat honest we know that's a put-down come on you're like a kind of pig it's just it's just sex and booze and fun fun fun and like that's this is what Einstein was talking about what's the difference between you and a smart Pig who walks on his hind legs so that's he Donia its stimulus driven but now that does some pejorative but I want to show you emphatically how I am not using this word pejoratively little things like food clothing shelter education and mental and medical care now nobody thinks that's ridiculous or pejorative oh you're one of those people want shelter oh you like medicine when you're sick nobody thinks that but the pleasure we get the happiness we get the satisfaction the contentment we get by having sufficient food and clothing and shelter getting the degree of education that we wish to be able to follow the livelihood in the way of life that we aspire for having medical care having it available that you can get it when you're injured or you're sick all the pleasure you get from that that's all he donea now we know that is not trivial the great Islamic need that the greatest Saints need that the greatest Yogi's need that they need enough food they need some kind of shelter even it's just a good cave they need something they need some clothing the Giants don't but the boot is kind of yet we want some clothing and so but let's go a little bit further the pleasures of friendship the pressures of having a wonderful pleasant conversation with a dear friend you don't need stimulus driven so he says there's nothing pejorative here at all the pleasures of seeing your children growing up happy and healthy its who Dona nobody will trivialize that but it's something that is a response to something happening in the world but it's not all outer it's not simply outer versus inner because someone's very well-known psychologist spoke of cultivating positive attitude think positively think positively that goes back a hundred years the power of positive thinking anybody remember that that's my grandparents II it was cutting-edge it was a big bestseller wasn't it Norman Vincent Peale wasn't it there we go we have a few people of my generation but it's really brilliant stuff I mean it's good stuff the power of positive lis think positively about your past think positively go down nostalgia Lane enjoy your memories think positively about the future and so if you're stimulating yourself within that's he Donia is there any he Dona in within religious practice does anybody engage in any kind of religious practice that provides him with a stimulus to response to which is a sense of pleasure anybody enjoys ever singing hymns I had to go to church every single day until I went off to college I heard lots of hymns and many of them are quite pleasant let alone the organ music la la that's Adonia Gregorian chants I think are splendid I enjoy them he Dona the rituals the sacred records of avid Rihanna of Zen or the extraordinary you know the tea ceremony and so forth so fine so exquisite the ceremonies of questions of various denominations its stimulus driven so when we say he Dona there's just it maybe crude and iboga okay of course but know when you're generating yourself Audrianna practice are you doing things with your mind that aroused a sense of pleasure because you're visualizing this reciting that imagining that I'm raising the bar quite high in high Donia it may be very meaningful and still stimulus driven or it may be vulgar and empty and crass if a person just really likes getting drunk or just like sniffing cocaine or whatever ok that's completely empty but she's a man with if you don't hear from something it really is quite pejorative and crude and base to something that can be very noble but it's still stimulus trait and the thing about you donate is when you stop the stimulation the resolve and Happiness vanishes and so in America we have the right to pursue happiness life liberty and happiness what kind of happiness in my homeland which I know pretty well right now I was it overwhelmingly when the American people and they don't think they're all that unusual in every way when people in America when we think of the pursuit of happiness I think overwhelmingly what comes to mind is adonia I'd like to be successful I'd like to have a nice house and car or two I'd like to have good medical care I'd like to have some wealth I'd like to have enjoy the respect and respect an appreciation of other people I'd like to have some influence not be just under somebody else's thumb if you don't need all the way through I don't think all that unusual and here's where it suddenly takes on a rather somber note that here Dhoni is not invariably but a very large extent it is competitive not invariably but by amount yeah in terms of wealth if I have or my country have my state has more somebody else has less there's a finite amount of stuff out there they can trigger cadonia so one has more somebody probably has less and that's intangible stuff food water energy natural resources when is more somebody else has less and the people that don't let the hills less don't really like that and if it gets to be out of hand like for example eight people owning as much as 3.5 billion people the poorer people those 3.5 billion will look at those eight people and after a while they might think do we really have to tolerate this why should they have 80 billion dollars for one person and they can't even imagine how to spend that whereas if they share I can really imagine how I get to you I could use another $300 boy could I use that and this person $300 is not even a table scrap it's a fleck of dust on the table so then that inequality is not sustainable the Sustainable is the keyword right inequality is about there's over some but what we have now is unprecedented in human history and it's not sustainable and so he dona when we think and i wanted to highlight we all want something better in life did i quote him directly we are all we are all seeking something better in life and everything hinges on better because i want something better in life i didn't come here for something better from my life but am i meditating eight hours a day regularly but yeah because i want something better in my life so i continue listening to talk by his homeland dalai lama and receiving teachings by other lamas yeah cuz i want something better in life but it's not more stuff it's not more he dona I actually was gifted by my Lamas especially to look in the right place that better will actually mean happier greater fulfillment greater meaning greater joy greater sustainable well-being so he Dona there's a problem with Adonia which is as a value system oriented to directly correlated with a way of life and he don't it if that's your value that my happiness is to be found out there it only is something I will get from life and therefore I'm pursuing it I haven't it's like you know they like the Greyhounds racing after an iron bunny pursuing it thinking if only I can catch that bunny and it's iron if they cut it it just give him mouth sores but you see how fast they're running Lily Tomlin then comedian she said the problem with a rat race is even if you win you're still a wrapped and so we find people who have more wealth than they keep it imagine spending and they're living on antidepressants or they turn to alcohol they turn to cocaine you don't need to be rich to turn to alcohol or cocaine or crack you don't need to be rich at all so they're rich they won and they're going back to what a person who's living in ghetto can go for they have no imagine there's no more imagine think of looking for something better and they get up there with great wealth great prestige notoriety fame to get up there with great power and they find they still haven't found what they're looking for and then often they'll go right back down to drugs and alcohol and so forth or just losing themselves in work that's one general anesthesia is doing it losing ourselves in work losing ourselves in entertainment in sex alcohol entertainment stimulation stimulation to kind of drown out the unhappiness that is our baseline I listen to i'll keep his name anonymous but it's very public but a world-class musician on a documentary on it was just leave it at that and he he tried cocaine no heroin he tried cocaine everybody tried heroin and the first time he took it he shot himself up he said it was just just sublime I've heard his nirvanic but he said it was sublime they just takes you to another place and then he said but once only and he became a heroin addict he went to even JP we didn't we went to jail but he said all the other times you take heroin after that it's just to numb your senses of who you are to dull the pain of being who you are and of course it's killing you so you won't be who you are for very long I wish this were taught in every kindergarten that if your vision of the good life is do you think it's going to be by getting greater wealth or fame notoriety appreciation and so forth you think it's gonna be by creating greater influence power and so forth you really have to wake up and recognize this is known territory you're not going into a virgin wilderness here this is known territory and you are setting out on a path of delusion if you think better is more of the same you're fundamentally ignorant and deluded it's just true and then if one is simply an existentialist one might say well then that's it life is meaningless life the pointless we're fundamentally neurotic and we're not made to be happy unhappiness is just what we have to deal with so just don't commit suicide sure you're a real a mensch you're strong but that's not what Socrates said that's not the Buddha or Augustine or any of the great great wise sages and saints of East and West inside and outside of religion they have discovered millenia ago that the better is something qualitatively different it's just not more of the same because the more the same will never satisfy and it's never sustainable those two things it will never satisfy those eight people that own that much you can count on it they want more if George if Jeff Bezos is not number two because Bill Gates just popped them out what do you think Jeff Bezos thought is why should I be number two I think I can do some good investments here I can pop right back up to number one and then they're like greater breathing distance so number two can't catch me don't you think something they're not just going into retirement no they're still wanting something better something better people are immensely powerful something more something people incredibly famous in some cases they want to keep their fame and get a bit more and it never satisfies and it's not sustainable so even if you win the rat race you're still just a very well-fed rat it's good wisdom from the lips of a very gifted comedian and so this Greek call you Damania in the Buddhism just so you know that I am never really straying from buddhadharma here this is a Buddhist retreat in buddhadharma it's not it doesn't come up obviously but if you know where to look and I've had a lot of time to look it's called by two names in Tibetan dombay devil which is supplying well-being and young debate they were authentic well-being the Greeks called it eudaimonia and I will define you the many a genuine well-being I think is the best translation I've seen from the Tibetan or the Greek genuine well-being is quality of well-being that we it's not that we get from the world that is the case for he Donia but as something we bring to the world and whether it's a concentration camp or refugee community or you're dying of cancer or tragedy has just struck your community your well-being holds that it carries through and it holds your sorrow it holds your grief but you don't become sick you don't become neurotic you don't become psychotic you don't think I'm mentally ill because the well-being is holding you and holding you you may be able to hold others as well people like his only Dalai Lama he is to my men virtually an embodiment of genuine some of you know that that wherever he goes he's always bringing that with him came bodies that he expresses it and people can sense that it's almost like it's contagious or he's creating an energy field to him I'm not being very fairy here I've translated for many many times that being the first time I translate on his first teaching tour of Europe it was very short just Switzerland and Greece but I was invited to be his interpreter and I was with him all the time I was in his entourage and I found the whole time there in Switzerland then I was just happy all the time I was like I was in this force field and I was just just I couldn't look for the stimulation I couldn't see the little vibe or whatever but there was just a sense of well-being of being in the presence of a man which such with such majesty of being such compassion such well-being such kindness such humility and being with such a person he's called gunden presents great beings he is certainly happily not unique but beings who embody such deep virtue wisdom compassion and well-being they blessed by their presence and that's an empirical I could elaborate but not now so you know mania is not dependent on anything nice happening to you not even thinking happy thoughts or engaging in very enjoyable meditative practices let's stimulate their mind nothing wrong with it but you demure Damania does not require stimulation when there's no stimulation you're just sitting in a room temperature ordinary room with no stimulation like just an empty room and air temperatures fine and you're not hungry or thirsty then some people find that very uncomfortable very rapidly let alone going into solitary confinement for weeks or months or years find that anguish and Yogi's will go into the same situation sometimes much worse and experience ever-increasing joy living in solitary it's not what they get from the solitaire it's what they're bringing to it and what they're cultivating in the simplicity and solitude of the meditative practice so genuine happiness is something we bring to the world not something we get through it we get from it but I'd like to linger a little bit more we have a half an hour I'd like to cover this and oh I said meditation that's too important to pass so I'll speak for another just five minutes and then we'll chill just cut myself off he don't yell let's just leave less lingered there a bit his Hornet that the Buddha did speak about happiness and not just esoteric happiness from deep Samadhi or wisdom or and so you know profound realization of Nirvana but say he raised the question what kind of happiness for people who are living in the world following a Right Livelihood their ethical but they're raising children they have a full-time job and maybe taking care of parents extended family they have social obligations and maybe not much in the way or anything at all in the way of meditative practice but they are practicing Buddhist they're followers of the Buddha and they take refuge and they're trying to live an ethical life trying to live in accordance with the teachings of the Buddha so you're a householder that's what it's called and so if that's the lifestyle that you wish to embrace is that what your heart calls for you would like to be married have children have a job be productive member of society take care of others who dependent upon you then what kind of happiness might you expect within that bandwidth well you're not going to go out for months or years into retreat you're not going to spend hours and hours meditation you have too many commitments but does this mean you're just a washout all you can do is support the monks and nuns no he says what kind of happiness might be won by a householder he said well these are there are four kinds of happiness to be won by a householder who enjoys sense pleasures they enjoy good food they enjoy in vacation and so forth you like us and from from time to time and when occasion offers so when some nice stimulus comes up they said thank you welcome come on right in and I'll I will joy the good food the music and so forth and so on what might such people we're living but we're being surrounded by such people what kind of happiness is might they might they experience might anticipate think you know this could be really on the table what for the happiness of ownership the happiness of wealth that happiness of freedom from debt and happiness of a clear conscience so elsewhere I've unpacked that but I can give you exact meaning because I know the material and the Buddha himself then clarified what he meant by these it's not self-evident the and let's just go through it quickly just a few minutes here like we can do it happiness of ownership is having enough food clothing shelter and medical care education that you're taking care of that is you are taking care of people who are dependent upon you such as spouse children maybe elderly parents you've got enough here okay you don't have to worry over all your okay you've got a nun if you don't have enough and you get more you're happier besides evidence is overwhelming there if you're impoverished you're really suffering you can't even take care of your children so forth and then you get more you'll be happier because you have more it's a wonderful thing to have enough and that's ownership you're okay you don't have to worry now get a speak and always strike but overall know you really do have enough there's happiness in that that's he dawnia and boy wouldn't it be wonderful everybody had that and then there's a happiness of wealth and this is having a bit more than you need a bit more than you need and so that if you want to throw a really nice birthday party for your child you don't say oh but we can't afford it you want to give a gift to your child you want to help your parents you want to do a little bit of philanthropic work you want to invite guests over for dinner you'd like to go for vacation sometime or see a movie or go out to dinner which nobody really needs to do but you can you can have those occasions we have a bit more than you need and you have something to offer when somebody says I really could use a bit of help is it well I have more than I need I'm happy to help you and then you get the joy of helping the other person you get the joy of seeing their children and get the best education that they can get because you have enough money more than just what could get mine so there's some happiness in that having that more than you need so that you can be bountiful you can be generous to those around you that makes really good sense the happiness of being free of debt and back in time of India debt what he's referring to because it didn't have mortgages credit cards and all of that back then but kind of debt I think he's referring to as the kind of debt you really don't know how you're gonna pay off the people in England what two or three hundred years ago they go to debtors prison isn't that a cool solution you can't pay your damages how do you go to prison to see how that works out I don't know what were you thinking how they can make any money in in prison but that's it that kind of debt you can't pay it off well then you can see go to prison for it or you inherent your parents debt how about that one well that's not having that would give you some real happiness I'm one of those people I have no debts I have no credit card debt and we had down on the house or car or anything else I have no I don't even have any debt my inbox on my email is empty I made sure of that before I came here so if I die this morning I paid off all my debts even my emails there's nothing in my inbox and nobody will suffer because I'm not getting any money because I'm covered like Socrates should be paid off the clock give a copy Sheila's then use free of death then he can okay chugalug lithium lock now because we're good everybody were good paid off everybody could actually see I got you okay you want me to die I'm willing chugalug down with hemlock and then that was the end of Socrates but that lifetime so there's a real joy there's kind of a relaxation there I know it because it's very high priority for me when there's a monkey never had debt after monk very briefly dead and then none so it's really it's very relaxing I like it I like it no debt I just pay it off because I never buy anything that I can't do that's afraid it's very relaxed I know that and then the final one is the bridge to the genuine well-being that a person who devotes him or herself to Dharma can find and that is the bridge of a clear conscience or literal translation blamelessness and a clear conscience get one minute is not that we've never done anything wrong or anything morally reprehensible most of us I've had plenty of opportunities and sometimes I have also committed non-virtuous activities I recognize that I am remorse I try never to do it again do my very best and then pretty carry through so we can purify negative karma and do our best not to repeat it sure I've had plenty of time to make errors and so that's what he's talking about not that I am so perfect I've never done anything wrong but I'm imperfect I have done things wrong on occasion but it's an extremely high priority but I don't miss repeat the moral mistakes of the past and I do my very best to live in accordance with the principles of non-violence and benevolence as my baseline so that when I die I will look back on my life and see yeah that was I was good like I think the world was better for my presence and had I not lived at all there's satisfaction in their clear conscious so that's the fourth and I think we'll cover a little bit of details after the meditation so please find a comfortable position I hope you're still comfortable and we'll have a 24 minute session this is a duration I learned from a text that was written about a thousand years ago in Tibetan texts hopefully you'll find it not too long not too short but it is very important for all of the sessions that you are comfortable physically as comfortable as you can and so if it's now time to change posture or if you can find a little bit of floor space at any time there's four space you should use it up with your yoga mat you can go in the supine position if you're comfortable there and not in a chair or sitting cross-legged please even it's quite full room being comfortable is actually very important for this initial practice called settling body speech and mind in a natural state I'll give you the background for this after the session but right now we have just about exactly 24 minutes so it's time for me to talk less as I guide you in this meditation that is the foundation for every other meditation you'll do and I think it would be beneficial inside Buddhism outside Buddhism frankly for any meaningful endeavor that's a big category - first settle body speech in mind in the natural state will serve you very well [Music] we'll begin each session with the sound of the China and if you're not already familiar with this through Prior retreats with me for example as soon as you hear that chime I invite you to let your immediate response be to relax it's a chime to set yourself at ease relaxed settle in a state of comfort relaxation hear the sound of the chime and let the locus of your awareness descend right were from where it most likely was prior to the session up in the head having a sense you're up in the head behind your eyes descend let your awareness descend bring awareness down Cecily descending through your torso down through your thighs down through your calves down to your feet sitting cross-legged would let it descend down to all the points of contact of your buttocks your thighs your calves your feet on the meditation cushion if your soup is going down to all the points of contact with your body the back of your head your your back legs your feet to the ground on a chair obvious your contact with the chair of the ground descend to San bring awareness down ground your awareness and the sensations of the earth element the sensations of firmness and solidity the type of sensations a firmness of the chair the cushion yoga mat now that your awareness rest wisely witnessing without thinking about or visualizing your body rest your awareness and purely witnessing mode mystical sensations being supported solve it rest there from you've let your when is descend from a mental space that's filled with language of thoughts and memories and you descended down into domain of experience with somatic field which is free of language free of words free of thoughts it's a non conceptual domain so let your awareness rest in a symmetry of a simple being where non conceptually non verbally of the non conceptual nonverbal sensations you are in fact supported by the whole earth it's upholding you preventing you from sinking into the core rest there in that support a sense of being held even uplifted and then like a fragrance filling a room that your when is filled the entire semantic space of your body which is to say be aware of the sensation through your legs through your torso the sensations arising in your arms up to your neck to the crown of your head be mindfully aware of sensations arising throughout the entire tactile material again without thinking about the body or visualizing it just be present with this whole 3-dimensional field sensations arising within the space of tactile awareness and as you're mindfully presence aware of the sensations arising throughout this entire field there now it's an act of will set your body at ease for every feel constriction or tighten and see if you can release those muscles surrender them to gravity as your shoulders droop relax your whole body in this shavasana or supine position you can relax every muscle of your body if you're sitting upright on a chair or cross-legged you just have something still firm but bring your awareness to the phase which tends to be like a magnet of tension of contraction I invite you now to soften muscles of your face muscles around your mouth soften relax your jaw the temples bring awareness up to the forehead so often that the brow is full the forehead is wrinkled because of a contraction anxiety of fear of concentration anger relax let there be a spaciousness in your experience if your forehead open last the spaciousness between your eyebrows contract soften all the muscles around your eyes and soften your eyes themselves that you so relaxed the whole of your faith an expression of repose as relaxed as that of a sleeping baby in this way set your whole body at ease and a posture of relaxation comfort and insofar as you are d comfortable do your best for the duration of this short session to remain still without unnecessary fidgeting moving this way or that way this will help to maintain the composure the continuity of your attention returned to the subsequent practices be still apart from the natural movements of your breath and whether seated upright or lying down let your spine be straight never seated be sitting upright just slightly elevate your sternum as a soldier stands at attention sit at attention sternum just slightly raised spine straight abdominal muscles loosen relax sitting and attention such that when the breath comes in the sensations of the breath go right down to the belly which expands as you inhale keep your belly loose and relax the belly expands as you inhale and it falls back it retracts as you actually like filling a jug with water Philip remembered amount very healthy breathing so in short to settle the body in its natural state is to settle your body in a posture of ease of stillness and vigilance a type of dynamic equilibrium very relaxed but also very vigilant so we settle the body in his natural state and then we turn to the sutler challenge and that is settling in the speech in its natural state but according to the classic instructions means settling your speech in silence your voice in silence effortless silence like the silence of a lute on which the strings are cut that's easy you've already accomplished that that's your public voice but what about the inner voice of the mind the chitchat the commentary elimination let us take on the subtler challenge is it possible to settle the inner voice of the mind and it sustained effortless silence so it's quiet Mellon SSA chatter no obsessive-compulsive flow of rumination so we can be quiet we want to when there's nothing to think about that we don't think impulsively to facilitate that that inner silence that inner sanity being able to inwardly quietly quiet at will we settle the respiration in its natural rhythm the respiration and speech being so closely related no respiration no speech and to settle the respiration and its natural rhythm means to allow the breathing to flow effortlessly and without impediment without blocking it in any way breathing as if your deepest sleep breathing eager lessly releasing all control allowing the body to breathe without intervention let the body breathe it's good at it and don't mess with it and the key to this is the out-breath with every exhalation let the breath flow out as effortlessly as unimpeded ly as water flows out of a glass that's been turned on its side there's no effort on the part of the glass water just flows out effortlessly so let your breath flow out without holding it in without pushing it out relax more and more deeply in the body looser with every out breath release the breath continue releasing and releasing until you've given it all the way without pushing it out without forcefully expelling it don't hold anything in reserve like all of the water flowing out of the glass let the breath blow out all the way to the end and to do so you need to be very quiet not caught up in elimination when you come to the end of the Opera be very quiet watch the breath flow out to the last drop with every opera simply release any thoughts memories mental images that may have come to mind but just release them like a mother sending her children off just to to school just releasing them have a good day enjoy school I'll see you soon bye bye now like leaves blown away in the wind as you breathe out just release the activities of mine the conceptualization of the internal dialog release it into space and when you come to the very end breath is released into silence and stillness they get out of the way alight and that left the next breath flow in effortlessly without impeding it but without pulling it in this is why the posture but your posture is such that there's nothing in your posture that would impede or constrain the flow of the inhalation the sensation is laying down to your belly that's the breath flow in effortless as it flows in sometimes a breath may be short sometimes long sometimes shallow sometimes in teeth let it be just be present with it witness it without seeking to modify without preference without control without interference left the body breathe as if you were dead asleep and what your body is doing when you allow it to do it by way of the breath which is profoundly related to your nervous system or an Indian physiology the prana system you're allowing the body to restore its own equilibrium its own balance of your nervous system your promise system it's a natural planning on but you're relying upon the body restoring his own without you trying to outsmart it not expecting the breath will be this or that allowing it to be whatever it is from breath to breath and then watch as the body gradually gradually allows the breath to settle into a natural rhythm about which we'll talk later you're watching your body restore its own powers healing itself from the nervous damage we've done to it earlier in the day and in this way we settle this beach settle the rhythm of the breath in its natural state uncontrived unconfigured uncontrolled and finally return to the most subtle most challenging of these three phases of the practice and that is settling the mind in its natural state it tells first of all as you may expect at this point especially your mind in a state of ease relaxation rest in your mind so that your carefree at least for a few minutes releasing all thoughts or hopes and fears about the future and the past and allowing yourself the leisure and the opportunity the freedom to rest in the presence in the present moment and to be satisfied just to be present release all hopes and fears all desires all expectations your meditation will turn out this way or that way be satisfied be content to be aware and in that freedom that release of grasping desire and aversion awareness does suffer settles Mercedes the settles in stillness that is what is landed I mean we start agitating the mind that your awareness be remised naturally settled in stillness and the very nature of awareness is that it is bright it is clear it's illuminance it's wakeful rest in that natural wakefulness clarity the velocity of your own awareness that has been there all along but all was all too commonly bailed where thoughts hopes fears anxieties and so on rest in the simplicity of your awareness resting at ease in stillness in his own natural clarity the activities of the mind will not stop there's a lot of momentum there but let the thoughts come and go memories come and go mental images desires let them come and go but in the midst of the movements of the mind let your awareness remain still witnessing the movements of the mind but without being carried away by stay in the stillness in the midst of the movements of and in this way we settle the mind in its natural state relaxed still and clear so let's rest there for the remaining two minutes of the session body speech and mind all resting in a state of dynamic equilibrium resting in the natural state so the concluding comments will be very very short I'd like to be timely it's an act of courtesy really but there's an enormous amount of stress as we all know when they speedran ease be told that but why is there such an emphasis getting over stress why do we kind of assume that living in the modern world necessarily entails getting stressed out and we have to deal with that with meditation or alcohol or exercise or this simple practice that now you basically know everything you need to know about it that was a full construction on setting bodies peace of mind this is preventative it can be very hopeful for overcoming stress but the whole idea is why should we get stressed out in the first place in an effective way if we can maintain this in between sessions as we're at work thriving attending to our families and so forth if we can maintain that sense of ease in the body and moving the body whenever needed and moving the mind thinking imagining whenever we need to but knowing that we can at a drop of a hat or finger snap at any moment we can just come right back to an inner sense of stillness relaxation clarity and then we pick up thinking like picking up a knife and fork and when we finish thinking then putting it down and not getting caught up in a torrent of rumination and the mind activating the mind using it of course is there for us to use but when we don't need to use the mind knowing that there's a place of quiet there is peace of mind it's closer than your fingertips and establish this as a baseline throughout the course of the day that you're allowing the body to breathe just as an Egyptian mummy said in quietly need less but letting your body breathe and don't constrain it don't hold unnecessary tension in the body that's not healthy and don't hold unnecessary strain tension in the mind it's not healthy very simple so we have an hour and a half and I think people need to go out or there's no there's no food here so I will not even suggest maintaining silence in between because trying to order off the menu with sign language a little bit difficult so I won't say anything about the break but if insofar as you can maintain this quality of inner presence even as you're eating walking and so forth then you'll be establishing a new baseline would you be really to your advantage so that's it so let's take our break have our meal and I look forward to seeing your 1:30 brief preamble and we'll go right back into meditation so I'll see you now

Channel: Vajrayana Institute

Views: 27,419

Rating: 4.9688716 out of 5

Keywords: meditation, calm abiding, buddhist, tibetan buddhism, fpmt, Vajrayana Institute, breathing meditation, buddhist meditation, shamatha, breath meditation, retreat, buddhism, Alan Wallace, buddhist retreat, mindfulness

Id: 7Xyikn0_IWU

Length: 95min 47sec (5747 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 10 2019