Alan Wallace Shamatha Teachings Fall 2010

By clearly stating “Nobody has direct access to the mind as you do” Alan speaks briefly about science and Buddhism, especially in terms of defining who we really are, where the scientific conclusions lead generally to disempower the individual experience. He invites us, then, to watch the nature of our own awareness. He affirms that the reason why the mind has the appearance of movement is because of grasping. If you relinquish all grasping, awareness is by nature still and luminous. Even when dullness arises we can be vividly aware of it, by not grasping to it. And these are the characteristics of achieving shamatha: stability and vividness. After a 10–minute introduction to today’s practice, we went into the 3rd round on meditating on awareness of awareness. He guided us by asking questions about our mind, about the agent or the observer… but, it is better if you listen to this meditation session! NOTE ON THE PICTURE: The name of this lovely dog who resides in the Mind Centre is Joy. She was particularly i