63 Mindfulness of breathing, part 1

Fall 2011 Shamatha Retreat

Once again we start the cycle, beginning with mindfulness of breathing. Alan first gives an overview of the whole path, from settling the body, speech and mind in their natural state, all the way up to dzogchen, by using the analogy of a computer. We start with a very old, big and clunky computer that barely works, and we upgrade it over and over with the "software" of shamatha, vipashyana, bodhichitta, etc. that reboots and enhances it until we end up with a perfect machine, which stays turned on "for as long as space remains, for as long as sentient beings remain..." Quite nice!

Meditation starts at 38:00

Questions (63:08):
1) Why is it said that when we see a negative quality in someone else like anger, we're reflecting our own, like a mirror; when the Buddha got rid of his defilements couldn't he see any more anger, envy, etc in other people?
2) Differences between science and buddhism in terms of goals (hedonic vs eudaimonic) and how each treats meditation accordingly