Spring 2012 Shamatha Retreat

Being mindful of the sensations of the breath at the abdomen can result in a eudaemonic contentment if we release craving for more stimulating pleasures, and simply enjoy watching our body unravel energetically. In this flow, we can progress to the fourth stage of shamatha. It can help our practice to retain the same contentment when we are off the meditation cushion, while bringing ourselves replete to the world. The substrate consciousness, a storehouse of memories and karmic seeds, does not appear brimming with these things when we can finally observe it upon achieving shamatha. Is it because these things are dormant? Or are they nonexistent from a relative perspective? In what way does the information of our mindstream persist? When we are able to rest in the pure cognizance of awareness do we know it to exist in its own right outside of any cognitive framework? Alan attends to these questions with glee.