Alan Wallace Fall 2012 Retreat Podcast: Vipashyana, Four Applications Of Mindfulness

Teaching: Alan shares the conclusion of phase 1 of the Dudjom Lingpa’s Sharp Vajra of Conscious Awareness Tantra. Phase 1 covers taking the impure mind as the path aka settling the mind. You identify the impure mind that is dissolved into substrate consciousness. How never to be separated from the experience of the practical instructions when distant from sublime spiritual friends. A sublime spiritual friend reveals the path. It is important to distinguish between path and not path. We need to practice diligently in this phase, as shamatha is indispensable when we venture into practice. We know the taste of luminosity and cognizance of awareness. We know substrate and substrate consciousness. But shamatha is just a preliminary to the path. If we just stay put, we don’t actually get on the freeway to liberation. Whether or not we’ve recognized rigpa, if our mind still gets distracted or dull, we need to mount conceptual mind like a cripple onto the blind stallion of the breath. Tethering the mind