Spring 2012 Shamatha Retreat

This afternoon we proceed again to awareness of the breath at the apertures of the nostrils. We review the significance of using subtle objects to develop vividness in awareness of breathing and settling the mind. Then with awareness-of-awareness, how it reveals the inherit clarity of the substrate consciousness by dispelling the five obscurations by releasing grasping. Alan brings to question the validity of the instruction for use of the acquired sign in the final stages of shamatha, suggesting it is only an interpretation, and not what the Buddha actually taught. Q&A: * How to regard one's career in the pursuit of dharma. * Status of previous retreatants. * How to cope with bliss when it arrises. * Medium excitation in settling-the-mind. * How consciousness functions as pulses through time. Meditation starts at 27:04 Q&A starts at 52:04