Alan Wallace Live from Phuket!
108 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 14 years ago - ★★★★★ - 25 ratingsWelcome! This is now an archive page for Dr. Alan Wallace’s teachings from the Spring 2010 Shamatha Retreat in the wonderful Phuket International Academy Mind Centre!
This podcast feed was 100% created and updated by us (his students here in Phuket) so we can share Alan’s diamond-sharp teachings!
This podcast was created live every day during the retreat in 2010. We will still maintain this site because the teachings are timeless. For more information, please contact the great people at [email protected] !
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Episodes
Ending Where We Began: Equanimity Permeated With Loving Kindness
June 11, 2010 16:25 - 1 hour - 42.9 MBThis afternoon may be the last podcast episode of Alan's lectures for this retreat. He started by returning to the hypothesis of saying that if we align ourselves with reality, reality will rise up to meet us. That is, if we devote ourselves with our heart and might to the path of Dharma (the word Dharma means reality, by the way), with a clear and strong motivation, all that we truly need rises up to meet us in a friendly way. He also talks about really understanding Dharma, and about transm...
The Last Shamatha Practice
June 11, 2010 03:02 - 39 minutes - 18.5 MBI know, I am quite the dramatic with my titles :) With a bittersweet feeling we have come to the last group practice of Shamatha for this retreat. To end majestically, we practiced the fourth method of Shamatha without a sign as taught by Padmasambhava. Preceding the practice, Alan shared some tips of what we can do to practice and ground ourselves in the midst of a flurry of activity around us. He first returned to his analogy of Schooner (Boat)/ Submarine/Jet Plane in relationship with the ...
Equanimity: Looking Ahead
June 10, 2010 16:36 - 1 hour - 46.3 MBThis afternoon Alan started by sharing a story about his first meditation counsel with Geshe Rabten, and the two topics that he suggested for meditation: Precious Human Rebirth and Equanimity. He emphasizes the importance of Equanimity and seeing through the "I-It" relationship with others (for more on this topic refer to previous episodes), and also highlights the importance of balancing the urgency that can arise from meditating on the precious human rebirth. He suggests not being shortsigh...
Of Trust, Devotion, or Lack Thereof (+ Awareness of Awareness Practice)
June 10, 2010 03:32 - 43 minutes - 20.5 MBThis morning Alan starts by giving instructions on how to watch the opening game of the World Cup (Mexico-South Africa) on Friday, after being asked for permission to do so. He has a very interesting football-watching technique! On a slightly more profound tone, Alan is asked what to do with the whole topic of devotion when teaching Shamatha in a scientific context. He gives a very good explanation of how Shamatha can be practiced with no religious devition at all, with some devotion, and wi...
Awareness of Awareness: Emerging through the Clouds of the Dense, Deluded, Compulsive Mind into Clear and Luminous Space
June 09, 2010 03:39 - 58 minutes - 27.7 MBAs we approach the end of the retreat, the lectures are getting more and more information packed and so are these summaries. I will say as I always do; if you are new to the podcast go back to the first episodes! This morning we started by covering the importance and the difficulty, even for Tibetans now and in the past, of calming the mind through Shamatha practice. Alan speaks about the sad state of the modern view that reduces human beings into biological machines, where the brain does ev...
Empathetic Joy: Using our Mind as a Best Friend (+ great Q&A incl. a deep question about love and attachment).
June 08, 2010 12:52 - 1 hour - 41.8 MBThe story Alan narrates at the very start of this episode comes because there was a dog outside the teaching hall, and as we were coming in for the lecture he would try to get in between our legs, or at least just stick his head in. He clearly looked very determined and excited to learn about Mudita, and it was hard to get Alan inside the teaching hall sans-dog. Moving to the actual lecture, Alan explains today's practice, in which we cultivate empathetic joy towards others both in terms of h...
Awareness of Awareness: A Smooth Transition from the Space of the Mind
June 08, 2010 04:47 - 54 minutes - 25.5 MBThis morning, Alan said he would squeeze out every drop of knowledge he had left about this first method of Awareness of Awareness, so if you listen to the previous episodes on this stage of practice you will be extremely well rounded! Alan starts by detailing an all to common problem: thinking that we are doing the practice incorrectly when we are actually doing it correctly, and reacting by tightening up our attention and trying harder, resulting in fatigue. This is followed by explaining h...
Compassion: Investigating a Hypothesis about the Very Root of Suffering (and the importance of not taking Dharma out of context)
June 07, 2010 14:49 - 1 hour - 42.4 MBThis afternoon Alan started by pointing out the modern tendency of being very harsh and strict with ourselves, and the need for Compassion. He then proceeds by diving down to the very root of suffering, considering the hypothesis that all mental afflictions stem from the grasping and reification of "self" as separate, autonomous, and self-existant. He aludes to the Vajra essence, showing how the symmetry of the substrate is broken and the sense of "self" coagulates and differentiates itself f...
Settling the Mind in its Natural State: Sustaining a Continuity
June 07, 2010 13:22 - 29 minutes - 13.8 MBThis practice got separated from the previous episode for continuity purposes. As you might expect, we return for the final time to the practice of Settling the Mind in its Natural State. Spefically, we start by attending to the spaces in between mental events, and after a while we go deeper and without breaking the continuity we observe the space from which mental events arise, in which they are present, and into which they dissolve. Alan briefly reflects on achieving Shamatha by observing t...
[Extra Bonus] Culminating in the Great Perfection: The Dzogchen View (Addendum)
June 07, 2010 12:53 - 30 minutes - 14.4 MBIn this morning session, Alan really woke us up (interpret that as you will) by making an addendum to this Sunday's bonus episode where we had a "speed drive" through different ways of viewing reality from the Buddhist point of view. Alan only had two minutes left for Dzogchen, so this morning he went deeper into an explanation of this culminating Great Perfection. This episode is crucial to understanding the Dzogchen view. Alan first briefly recapitulates on the path to Arhathood from the p...
[Bonus] The Philosophical Evolution of an Individual through all the Four Schools of Indian Buddhism, Culminating in the Great Perfection. In 45 minutes.
June 06, 2010 14:16 - 56 minutes - 26.7 MBYes, this is an ambitious title but as always the podcast episode does not fail to deliver the goods. However, I really won't even try to summarize all of Buddhist Philosophy in two paragraphs. I know I always say that but really, this time there is just no point and not enough space for me to do that. However, I will give you a few things :) The lecture started with what to do when we encounter strong negative emotions, attitudes, and mental states after the retreat, and this was weaved wi...
[Short Bonus]: How did ignorance and delusion arise in the first place? Will samsara end?
June 06, 2010 12:53 - 20 minutes - 9.65 MBFor this short bonus episode, I extracted a question that Elizabeth said was maybe unanswerable, about the very beginning of ignorance and delusion (and samsara for that matter). But we all know by now that Alan always has something up his sleeve. He starts by talking about the problems that can arise when we misniterpret the Buddhist view that "samsara is beginningless". Infinite past lifes would mean infinite chances to achieve Bodhicitta, to go into meditation retreat for 60 years, to ach...
Compassion: Freeing Ourselves from the Underlying Causes of Suffering (Attachment/Craving)
June 05, 2010 16:17 - 37 minutes - 17.8 MBIn this afternoon practice, we focused not so much on the blatant form of suffering as we did yesterday, but on the underlying causes. In the introduction, Alan reflects on how little we really know about suffering in modernity, and how we build our hapiness on very weak foundations of delusion, attachment, and craving. Even if we have good luck and we are hedonically happy, the foundation of that happiness is just a time bomb, and sooner or later it will go off and we will suffer. In this m...
"The Tempest," Settling the Mind in its Natural State
June 05, 2010 03:17 - 34 minutes - 16.2 MBThis morning we returned to Settling the Mind in its Natural state, this time observing the foreground of events arising within the domain of the mind. Alan quotes two plays from Shakespeare ("The Tempest" and "As You Like It") which relate with uncanny precision to what we have been covering in this retreat. Enjoy the mostly silent practice! Some of you may recognize today's image as the painting "Miranda," (by John William Waterhouse in 1916), depicting a scene from "The Tempest."
Compassion: Focusing on the Blatant Suffering
June 04, 2010 16:41 - 1 hour - 41.7 MBThis afternoon we went into a very practical and powerful practice on Compassion, focusing on the blatant, glaring, obvious pain that can arise in both the physical and mental domains of experience. Alan starts by giving a brief overview of this blatant suffering, and what can be done to cure it mentally, including praise for the pharmaceutical industry in relieving the symptoms. He then highlights how this blatant suffering is something we have all experienced, and how it really can take pos...
Settling the Mind In its Natural State: Exploring Conceptually Unmediated Experience
June 04, 2010 03:06 - 33 minutes - 15.8 MBIf you have been subscribing to the podcast, you are probably very familiar with today's meditation. We practiced Settling the Mind in its Natural State by first coming in through different domains of experience, following to the instructions that the Buddha gave to the wandering ascetic Bahiya. I have linked to them directly in the past so I won't do so here, however Alan paraphrases them very clearly in the introduction. Alan also gives a brief recap on a point about non-conceptual experien...
Loving Kindness: Weaving the Present into the Future (+ Bodhicitta Discussion)
June 03, 2010 15:38 - 1 hour - 31.9 MBThe introduction to today's practice was tailored to us here in Phuket in the sense that we are coming out of retreat soon, but it can be applied by everyone. Alan talks about including the people we are going to see soon into our Loving Kindness meditation, and talks about the quite palpable effects that this can have on our relationships with such people in the (near) future. He includes his experience of this when dealing with Indian customs officers in Delhi, and if you feel skeptic about...
Mindfulness of Breathing: Practicing with the "glass half full" attitude
June 03, 2010 03:25 - 41 minutes - 19.7 MBIn today's mindfulness of breathing practice, Alan started by talking about the causes and solutions for the all too popular phenomenon of the "energy going up to the head," and proceeded by applying the glass half empty / glass half full example in our practice. He emphasizes taking delight in the periods (as brief as they may be) when we recognize we are no longer distracted and have a little glimpse of being clear in the present. Before jumping into the practice, Alan shares a story from ...
Opening the floodgates of our inner virtues ( + Loving Kindness practice)
June 02, 2010 14:46 - 1 hour - 32.4 MBThis afternoon we started with a reflection on how many times we see people as just "flat images" or appearances arising to our minds. In the supermarket, subway, etc, we see them as obstacles or merely objects in our way. Today’s intro deals with seeing through those images and realizing that a real person is there, looking back, with their own hopes and fears, joys and sorrows. Alan also emphasizes the importance of starting with ourselves, and describes these Four Immeasurable practices as...
Finding the balance between relaxation and effort (+ Breath Awareness practice)
June 02, 2010 03:49 - 35 minutes - 16.9 MBThis morning, Alan started by reading two short verses from the Dhammapada, (freshly translated by him last night) which are a very strong metaphor with the mind training we are doing here. He then talks about the importance of having a base in relaxation and training the mind from the ground up rather than tensing up and forcing it to quiet down. However, pure relaxaton will not simply cause stability to arise on its own, so Alan explains how a delicate balance is needed between effort and r...
Analyzing the reality that we live in, and testing the biggest experiment that a human being can perform. (+ Loving Kindness Practice)
June 01, 2010 15:04 - 1 hour - 43 MBThe beginning of this afternoon's lecture is a stunning, wisdom-packed reflection on the analysis of our own world view. Alan starts by giving an overview of some of the predominant world views, from the individual vantage points of physics, biology, Abrahamic religions (Christianism, Judaism, Islam), and contemplative practices, ultimately culminating in an explanation of the Buddhist view. He gives a brief but very precise reflection on Karma, Theravada, and Mahayana views, and then propo...
Revisiting the Infirmary for the Last Time!
June 01, 2010 03:18 - 24 minutes - 11.6 MBI'll try not to title all of the Shamatha episodes from today onwards with the phrase "for the last time," although we have come to the final cycle of the teachings! My descriptions for these morning practices will really not be very verbose since it's the fourth time (or so) I podcast the full-body awareness practice. So if you are new to the podcast, I really suggest listening to the first practices back from April. The descriptions and the practices themselves are much more throughly expl...
[Bonus] Psychology, attention, and the urgent need for contemplative science.
May 30, 2010 09:58 - 55 minutes - 26 MBA number of the past bonus podcasts had been geared towards the physicists, but this weekend we have some juice for psychologists! In this bonus podcast, we have some extremely interesting points about attention training and the cognitive sciences from a more professional psychology standpoint. However, this is also very relevant for all meditators wishing to gain a better understanding of attention. Adeline asked several questions, mostly pertaining to the "pulse-like" quality of our attent...
[Bonus] Phuket Mind Observatory Plans / Neurofeedback Augmentation
May 30, 2010 09:28 - 35 minutes - 16.6 MBIn this bonus episode we cover some very interesting cognitive science/brain science questions from Noah. The first question asks if meditation researchers have been able to isolate the EEG correlates of meditative experiences such as staying on the object, excitation, laxity, etc. The second question asks whether it is possible to "augment" Shamatha practice, perhaps speed up the earlier stages, for example, with the use of neurofeedback training. Alan starts by talking about the short/medi...
Entering the Great Path of the Bodhisattvas
May 29, 2010 12:21 - 1 hour - 44 MBIn this afternoon's marvelous introduction, Alan talks about The Great Path of the Bodhisattvas, comparing it to a Freeway (using the American term). Using this very accurate analogy he talks about getting on the fast lane, and never getting off (until we reach the common destination). A very inspiring introduction! After a thirty minute silent session, we go into some very interesting Q&A. Among the topics covered we have a quick question about the breath as the body settles during the pra...
[Vesak] Special Meditation and the Story of The Buddha’s Enlightenment
May 28, 2010 13:56 - 1 hour - 37.9 MBThis afternoon we started with a special guided meditation to commemorate the Buddha's Enlightenment, not specifically centered on Shamatha or the Four Immeasurables. After the meditation, Alan gave us a short recap on the night/morning of the Buddha Gautama's enlightemnent, up to the moment when he went back to his five companions and they also achieved Enlightenment. He ends the story on a heartwarming reflection about the day we are commemorating, which set this whole sequence of events f...
Vesak Day Guided Meditation
May 28, 2010 02:59 - 32 minutes - 15.3 MBHappy Vesak Day! This morning we conmemorated the celebration of Buddha Śākyamuni's birth, enlightment, and parinirvana with a guided Shamatha meditation. After the session, Alan talks a little bit about Vesak and concludes by saying that the best way to celebrate the Buddha's day is to practice all day, so I hope you can all join us around the world!
[Bonus] A Sublime Explanation of Awareness of Awareness [Short]
May 27, 2010 13:29 - 18 minutes - 8.59 MBI extracted this practical gem from this afternoon's lecture. It is a clear example of how the instructions to a practice can be profoundly meaningful, stunning, transformative, and just utterly inspiring when given correctly by a sharply prepared, more than qualified, and immensely skilled teacher. In this short episode, Alan sublimely describes the practice of Awareness of Awareness in response to a question from Malcolm, specifically focusing on resting in the pure luminosity and cognizan...
Cultivating Self-Worth, Eliminating Pride, The Story of Alan’s First Meeting with HH. Dalai Lama back in 1971, and flowers.
May 27, 2010 13:00 - 51 minutes - 24.1 MBToday we went directly into practice, which I removed from the recording to make it easier to listen to. As you know by now, just do your own practice and then press play! Alan suggests that if we are just feeling "ordinary" or with no specific need to balance emotions, then Loving Kindness or Tonglen are always magnificent go-to practices. After the meditation (and where this recording starts), we had an extremely juicy lecture. I usually say "juicy" when Alan gives marvelous scientific exp...
Retaining the benefits of practice
May 27, 2010 03:07 - 32 minutes - 15.3 MBThis morning we had a silent meditation followed by a few brief tips. The tips cover a bit of posture, and then Alan talks about how the benefits of the practices can be retained in a non-contemplative lifestyle, linking this to losing as little ground in between sessions by using one of several strategies. Enjoy! (Local photo from Daniela)
[Short] The Expedition of Shamatha
May 26, 2010 12:46 - 15 minutes - 7.28 MBThis afternoon we went directly into meditation with no preamble, and had no outro directly pertaining to the meditation. So you can meditate for 24 minutes on your own and then press play! We briefly come back to Malcom's question on the Theravada/Mahayana views of Equanimity, clearning up some generalizations that are sometimes made about Buddhism (specifically about karma and equanimity) in the process. We then go to a question from Mervin about "The Attention Revolution" and the expediti...
Starting a Two Week Retreat
May 26, 2010 03:04 - 33 minutes - 15.8 MBThis morning Alan suggested to adopt the attitute of starting a 2-week retreat. He humorously gave some very important points and tips about the practice in order to make the most out of the time we have left. Very recommended! After the practice, Alan throws in 3 minutes about William James' pure experience theory, John Wheeler 's (theoretical physicist) theories, and how they are extremely similar to the core Buddhist teachings of experience. He also relates them to the practice of Shamath...
Four Immeasurables / Four Best Friends
May 25, 2010 12:24 - 37 minutes - 17.8 MBIn today's lecture, Alan gave a very brief reflection for when we finish this retreat. As we know, the still, sustained focus / samadhi of our attention will naturally diminish within a socially engaged lifestyle. However, the Four Immeasurables have no reason to do so and in fact can even be amplified and practiced all day within the context of our life. We then go into a free Four Immeasurable meditation, and I have a question for you valued listeners: Do you prefer for me to trim the silen...
"A Sacred Tension" that we might experience
May 25, 2010 02:51 - 8 minutes - 4.17 MBIn this episode, Alan talks about something that probably bothers many of us, and he calls it "A Sacred Tension." It is about our decision to either dedicate our time fully to contemplation, to mundane life, or somewhere in between both. This is very valuable for those of us having these types of doubts. I stripped out the silent meditation (so you know the drill: pause, set your own 24 [or more!] minute timer, and then press play again), and left in a brief outro. I would like to say that t...
Four Immeasurables: Using our anti-affliction arsenal correctly
May 24, 2010 11:35 - 1 hour - 28.8 MBThis afternoon we started with a very practical introduction on how to draw from the 4I throughout the course of a normal day in our life after the retreat if we are not going into full time practice. To use an incorrect (but illustrative) phrase, going back to the "real world." It includes a review on how to identify when and which of the Four Immeasurables are needed and on how to correctly apply them in day-to-day mundane life. The practice itself was silent, but I left it in for coherence...
Flying Solo [Silent Practice]
May 24, 2010 02:50 - 35 minutes - 16.5 MBThis morning Alan started by saying that he would like to let us choose our own Shamatha method, for these next few days and perhaps for the rest of the retreat. If so, then I will only be podcasting the long afternoon sessions. But for now I left this one in anyway. Alan also talks about the "gears" of our practice, upshifting and downshifting, and gives a brief outro on the importance of remaining engaged with reality. Enjoy this silent practice with us! This great photo is by Sara.
[Bonus] The Whole Shamatha Story in one Session
May 23, 2010 14:48 - 34 minutes - 16 MBIn this short and sweet sunday bonus, we synthesized the three main methods of Shamatha into one practice. There is an extremely short introduction and then the practice. A great way to combine these different meditative variations! Enjoy as we did! I would also like to let you know that after receiving several emails offering donations, I added some links to donate to the Santa Barbara Institute for Conciousness Studies to help fund future podcasts. For those viewing this on the web click o...
Loving Kindness: "Coming back to the Beginning for the First Time"
May 22, 2010 11:20 - 1 hour - 41.5 MBThis lovely afternoon we went back to the practice of Loving Kindness, using the phrase from T.S. Elliot in the title. We went straight into meditation. After the practice, we had assorted Q&A from several people, on many topics. Alan talked about "practicing well" regardless of how well the practice is going, and there are other pieces of golden information scattered throughout. I would also like to let you know that after receiving several emails offering donations, I added some links to...
Equanimity: Making the task cosmical; Awakening the deepest dimension of our existence.
May 21, 2010 12:02 - 1 hour - 43.7 MBAs you can probably tell by the title, today's practice was not you regular 4I practice. Sure, it did start out with a regular equanimity/Tonglen practice but this time we had the option of going deeper, down to pristine awareness. Rather than "Boundless" Compassion or Loving Kindness, today we had the option to cultivate "Great" (Maha) Compassion/Loving Kindness. Although "boundless" sounds quite more grandiloquent, cultivating Mahakarunā or Mahamettā is something that has to be yearned at o...
Awareness of Awareness: Probing into why we exist (the other side of the equation)
May 21, 2010 03:05 - 33 minutes - 16.3 MBAlan "kickstarted" this morning [because he likes that word so much ;) ] with a healthy dose of Physics. He started talking about the following article from NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/science/space/18cosmos.html , which claims to uncover a new clue as to why we exist. Appreciating the enormous scientific value of this article, we realize the truth of the statement "ask a physical question and you'll receive a physical answer." We go back into the analysis of the relationship betwe...
Equanimity: Striking a balance between fluidity and structure
May 20, 2010 12:05 - 1 hour - 41.7 MBThis afternoon Alan starts by quite briefly explaining this balance between fluidity and structure in the equanimity practice, and after the instructions we set off in a pretty much rich but silent session. After the session Alan had two juicy pieces of paper with multi-questions written on them. They cover a lot of practical content, such as the characteristics of the Shamatha stages and how to use them correctly, the characteristics of the different types of exitation and laxity. how to ma...
Awareness of Awareness: Warming up for the long run
May 20, 2010 03:03 - 39 minutes - 22.7 MBThis morning we return to the third phase in the classic Awareness of Awareness teachings of Padmasambhava. In the introduction, Alan explains how this phase helps create a very 3D and spacious quality to our awareness, which is a very good warmup before settling in in tomorrow's practice. Alan clearly explains the practice with his characteristic eloquence and then we dive right in. Following the practice, Alan spices it up with a little bit of cosmology for good measure, relating the pract...
Empathetic Joy (Silent Meditation), Q&A
May 19, 2010 12:31 - 1 hour - 28.8 MBThis afternoon the meditation was 100% silent. Even the introduction lasts around 20 seconds! I cut out the 24 minutes of silence in order to make this a smaller download. You can click pause and do your own Empathetic Joy meditation! For reference, go to the previous podcasts. After the meditation we had a power outage which cut out a chunk of a very interesting question. The power came on and off a few times, and I cut the long parts when the power was out (and thus we had no recording). ...
Awareness of Awareness: Deconstructing the artificial problem of mind and matter by going down to the root from which both emerge
May 19, 2010 04:07 - 40 minutes - 18.9 MBToday's practice, the second out of the four Awareness of Awareness methods that we cover in our cycle, is a very deep penetrating practice, encroaching upon VIpassyana territory. Alan starts with an introduction on the practice and its implications, relating it to the short discourse by the Buddha to the wandering ascetic Bahiya. After this sublime practice, the outro deals with the Buddhist middle way (warning about drawing false conclusions from this practice) and then with "I think, ther...
Empathetic Joy: Balancing some of the possible side effects of so much Shamatha practice!
May 18, 2010 11:29 - 1 hour - 42.7 MBAlan starts this afternoon by detailing some of the possible "side effects" that could happen during intense practice of Shamatha, in the sense that when we are trying to make our mind so focused an unified, it can sometimes become quite small. He also talks about how sometimes we keep hurting ourselves with our own memories of unpleasant events (making them real again) even dozens or hundreds of times after the original event. The Empathetic Joy practice we do afterwards is a remedy to both ...
Awareness of Awareness: Understanding the Nature of Consciousness (Going against the Dogma!)
May 18, 2010 03:16 - 42 minutes - 19.8 MBThis morning Alan promptly warned us that he was feeling a little bit feisty, which resulted in a great historical introduction with examples of how subjective experience has been mistreated and eventually completely disregarded by scientists and philosophers. It includes some fun quotes like this one from John B. Watson in 1913, "The time has come when psychology must discard all references to consciousness," and moreover "belief in consciousness is attributed to superstition and magic." It...
Combining Compassion and Loving Kindness: An Enriched Tonglen
May 17, 2010 12:01 - 1 hour - 44.4 MBToday as the title suggests we combined Compassion and Loving kindness into a practice of Tonglen. Furthermore, we incorporated the four modes of enlightened acvitity, using each one where needed, and in the visualization we let the light or energy sent out with the breath take the form of whatever is actually needed in the situation (not just necessary a generic light of compassion/loving kindness) and tinted it with the respective enlightened acvitity color. Whew! After the mostly silent ...
Settling the Mind in its Natural State: Allowing the mind to heal itself
May 17, 2010 03:10 - 34 minutes - 16.5 MBIn this morning's introduction, Alan talks about how the mind is very capable of healing itself, and how the purpose of settling the mind in its natural state is to observe it vividly while not doing things that will prevent the mind from healing. He also talks about talk therapy and medicine, highlighting how they are can be crucial in some cases as a preamble to meditating. Afterwards we have the practice, consisting of a short introduction and then silence. Enjoy! This picture of our Min...
[Bonus] *Follow-up* Clearing up a few points and a profoundly encouraging ending
May 16, 2010 15:29 - 14 minutes - 13.6 MBThis is a short followup (I promise! It’s actually less than 15 minutes) clearing up some points from the previous episode. I took two fragments from the next day and mashed them together for this podcast. It is absolutely necessary to listen to Part 1 before listening to this. In this first fragment B. Alan Wallace briefly returns to the topic of information flow, meaning-to-meaning communication (instead of achieving means through chemicals and brain correlates), and relates this to the p...
[Bonus] The nature of information, mind and matter, human existence as a flow of experience/information, quantum cosmology, etc.
May 16, 2010 14:23 - 53 minutes - 31.8 MBOk, this is what a lot of you have been waiting for, and with very good reason! Get your thinking hats on, turn off your phones, get a nice cup of tea, clear your schedule, and bring forth your scientific aspect. In this podcast episode, B. Alan Wallace, Ph.D., will be delving into topics such as the nature of information, mind and matter as a derivative of information, the placebo effect, its connection to the flow of experience/information in relation to human existence, and oh, why not: qu...