Practice Library

Meditation, Stability, Clarity: Experiencing the Liberating Power of Full Attention

A six-day training in shamatha meditation with Lama Alan Wallace.

During the retreat we explore, in theory and practice, a range of methods for developing meditative quiescence, or shamatha. We begin with the practice of mindfulness of breathing as taught by the Buddha, which is an especially effective approach to soothing the body and calming the discursive mind. The achievement of shamatha is widely regarded in the Buddhist tradition as an indispensable foundation for the cultivation of contemplative insight (vipashyana), and this retreat is designed to provide students with a sufficient theoretical understanding and a basis in experience to enable them to proceed effectively toward this extraordinary state of mental and physical balance. Six days of teaching and practice, over 30 hours of video. Co-hosted by the Contemplative Consciousness Network and Jamyang Buddhist Centre London, recorded 11th to 16th April 2014.

What this course covers

• Mindfulness of breathing as taught by the Buddha
• A range of methods for developing meditative quiescence
• Shamatha as the foundation for contemplative insight (vipashyana)
• Theory and experience together, over six days and more than 30 hours

Sessions

1. D1S1 - Motivation, Hedonic Pleasure and Settling the Mind 90 minutes
2. D1S2 - The Coal Burning Plant, and Genuine Unhappiness 97 minutes
3. D1S3 - Three Breathing Methods and the Ground of Becoming 167 minutes
4. D2S1 - Hovering, Comparison, and the Five Obscurations 94 minutes
5. D2S2 - Sensations of the Breath and the Bodyguard of Shamatha 98 minutes
6. D2S3 - Settling the Mind in Its Natural State 154 minutes
7. D3S1 - Radiant Purity, and What Obscures It 122 minutes
8. D3S2 - Letting Thoughts Dissolve, or Cutting Them Off 86 minutes
9. D3S3 - Combining Relaxation and Clarity in One Session 128 minutes
10. D4S1 - Two Paths to Practice, and How Appearances Deceive 116 minutes
11. D4S2 - The Middle Stages of Settling the Mind 80 minutes
12. D4S3 - Vase Breathing, and What You Bring to the Practice 159 minutes
13. D5S1 - Shamatha Without a Sign, and Stages Six and Seven 115 minutes
14. D5S2 - Stability by Effort, or by Letting Go of Grasping 73 minutes
15. D5S3 - The Oscillation, and Not Rushing Pristine Awareness 142 minutes
16. D6S1 - The Final Stages of Shamatha and Its Signs of Arrival 102 minutes
17. D6S2 - Merging Mind with Space, and What Shamatha Requires 91 minutes
18. D6S3 - Atisha on Perception, and Closing the Retreat 67 minutes