As a bonus, at the end of our retreat Alan presented to us the teachings on Sukhavati from Karma Chagme. If you missed your chance for the three modes of achieving enlightenment, then it is definitely not Alan’s fault, with all the podcasts up

93 Becoming A Child Of The Buddhas

Oct 15th, 2014

What better way to end a retreat than with Shantideva’s beautiful verses about embracing bodhicitta! The verses cited today are often used for the liturgy when taking the bodhisattva precepts. Shantideva’s verses are not meant as a teaching to

92 Achieving Buddhahood By Doing Nothing…ha ha

Oct 14th, 2014

In the silent meditation we are once again asked to balance earth and sky and to proceed at our own pace.After the meditation we finish the transitional process of meditation. The text shows how to get to the point from which you no longer aff

91 Four Rivers Flowing Into One Resolve

Oct 14th, 2014

On the penultimate stage to the cultivation of bodhicitta we return to the great resolve: I shall free all sentient beings. Alan points how that the deeper this promise sinks into you, the clearer it becomes that it only makes sense from the pe

90 An Approximation of Pure Land in Sight?

Oct 13th, 2014

At the beginning Alan shares extremely uplifting news as what concerns “Project Contemplative Observatory”. After having failed to build one in India and in Santa Barbara it finally looks as if a promising piece of land in Tuscany is available.

89 Great Equanimity, and the Importance of Views

Oct 13th, 2014

Alan starts by talking about his last dharma talk and once more making clear that his anger was not directed towards any person, but simply towards a certain view. This is important to stress because in the West often a view is conflated with a

88 Turning Up the Heat on Learned Ignorance

Oct 11th, 2014

The session begins with a guided meditation on variations of taking the mind as the path, beginning with maintaining peripheral awareness of fluctuations of the breath before single-pointedly focusing awareness on the space of the mind and what

87 Great Mudita

Oct 11th, 2014

“Why couldn’t all beings never be parted from sublime happiness free from suffering?” This question beginning the meditation on Great Mudita, Alan says, is a synthesis of great loving kindness and great compassion. After contemplating the ing

86 Ripened and Liberated

Oct 10th, 2014

Before the meditation, Alan elaborates on the importance of preliminary practices and the accumulation of merit in order to prepare the mind. However, that is not enough since merit can be lost, especially when generating anger towards a bodhis

85 Bringing wisdom to the cultivation of great loving-kindness

Oct 10th, 2014

Alan highlights the practice of balancing earth and sky. The core of the practice is to develop a deepening sense of ease, relaxation and groundedness, while at the same time maintaining and accentuating clarity. Alan explains how he started to

84 How To Acquire The Stars Of Merit For Your Practice

Oct 9th, 2014

In today’s session Alan talks about the importance of purification and accruing merit in order to proceed quickly along the path. The Sanskrit term for merit is punya, and it literally means power. It is that which propels you along the path. A

83 Great Compassion - Unveiling All Layers Of Suffering

Oct 9th, 2014

Whereas the Four Immeasurables are the best friends of Vipashyana in weakening the mental afflictions before wisdom finally gives them the rest, the Four Greats go much deeper, lifting the last veils to become a fully awakened buddha. In this m

82 Scientific Materialism on its Deathbed, or the Scent of a Revolution

Oct 8th, 2014

Alan reminds us that the text by Padmasambhava strikes one as religious and mystical if viewed from a eurocentric perspective. However, it is utterly important to acknowledge that while eurocentric concepts have been of great value in certain a

81 Equanimity, or This Little Light of Mine

Oct 8th, 2014

Once again we come back to the culmination of the 4 immeasurables: the cultivation of equanimity. By way of referring to the Dalai Lama as well as a Tibetan aphorism Alan emphasizes the importance of wisdom and compassion. We need both and they

80 Nothing on Which to Meditate

Oct 7th, 2014

In his brief instructions before the silent meditation, Alan reminds us of the importance, before all else, of releasing control of the breath.After the silent meditation session, Alan returns to his commentary on the text (page 178, Natural

79 Aspects of the Guru

Oct 7th, 2014

Alan begins by emphasizing once again the importance in Dzogchen of the relationship between the student and the guru.In Sravakayana practice the guru is regarded as an emissary of the Buddha. In Mahayana practice the guru is viewed as if he

78 External and Internal Space

Oct 6th, 2014

Alan reminds us that the advanced practices of “not meditating on anything” (page 176, Natural Liberation) are intended for those who have already achieved Shamatha and the insights of Vipashyana, and identified rigpa as well. The job at this p

77 Compassion from the View of Pristine Awareness

Oct 6th, 2014

Alan prefaces the meditation with his reflections on compassion being a hard sell to avowed materialists. If not sick or dying, cultivating your own hedonic pleasure seems a good bet. But materialists who truly open their hearts to the sufferin

76 The Transitional Process of Meditation

Oct 4th, 2014

Alan starts the session commenting on the importance of the sense of community and supporting each other. Emphasizing this, he explains a story of Ananda to illustrate that having spiritual friends is the whole of the practice.After the silen

75 Meditation on compassion and the three types of suffering

Oct 4th, 2014

This short podcast includes a meditation on compassion focusing on the three types of suffering: suffering of suffering, suffering of change and pervasive compounding suffering.Meditation starts at 05:31

74 Supercharging Your Practice

Oct 3rd, 2014

Alan started the teachings today with the question of how we know whether we are practicing dharma or not. After all, you could e.g. do shamatha just as a technique for relaxation. What makes it a dharma practice is when you have a definitive s

73 Expanding the Field of Loving-Kindness - But Am I Doing It Correctly???

Oct 3rd, 2014

Before our session of loving-kindness Alan lists some of the benefits of the practice, like sleeping and waking up in comfort, having no bad dreams, being able to die unconfused etc.After the meditation he comes back to the old problem that on

72 Apprehending the Clear Light of Deep Sleep

Oct 2nd, 2014

Alan started the teaching this evening by posing the question why we should venture into these practices of apprehending the clear light of deep sleep at all, when he repeats all the time that this is meant for people who have achieved shamatha

71 Returning to the Vision Quest

Oct 2nd, 2014

In today’s teaching we focused on the preliminary practices (Ngondro). If we do Mandala Offerings etc. with blind faith and without any understanding of their meaning, and instead just engage in an empty ritual, such action is meaningless accor

70 Venturing Into Dreamless Sleep

Oct 1st, 2014

Before the silent meditation Alan briefly reviews what he has already explained a couple of days ago: If the visualizations keep you awake or you just can’t visualize them, then it’s better to either settle your mind in its natural state (if yo