29 Compassion focused on blatant suffering

Fall 2011 Shamatha Retreat

Vast and Profound, it’s the minimum we can say about this afternoon’s session. Alan gave
us an exquisite exploration of the mechanics of the practice of Settling the mind in its
natural state: how by one step it can heal our minds from mental afflictions developing an
equanimity towards all kinds of mental events; this is through cutting their continuity by
being aware of them and leading us to shamatha. But not only shamatha, even it can help us
for the subsequent practice of Breaking Through.

He also gave us a bright presentation of the workings of attachment and anger, especially
the latter one putting the Iphone as a good example. How anger is rooted in delusion and
how it prevents from imploding into the substrate consciousness.

The meditation (50:28) was about compassion, at this time focusing on the most obvious suffering:
the suffering of pain. Alan wanted to focus not only onto any kind of suffering of suffering
but on the one that we can do something about it here and now: compassion for the mental
suffering.

For the questions and answers (75:24) the topics of lucid dreaming, the 4 thoughts that turn the
mind towards the Dharma, differences between intuition and reason and the difference
between the realization of emptiness and rigpa (most inspiring!!) came up.

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