Illness and pain

57 teachings in the library are about this.

Week 6 - The Whole Sequence, and the Spaces Between the Movements Dan Brierley · 70 minutes · recorded July 8, 2026
Dan talks through the whole five element sequence, movement by movement, focusing on the transitions between forms, the small gaps where flow can break and thoughts creep in. He describes the quality of each element in turn: earth's mountain-like presence, wood's rejuvenation, fire's heart and Shen, metal's boundaries, water's stillness. The class then practises Wu Chi, the five element breaths, and the full form through lion, tree, crane, tiger and lake.
Guided Meditation - Mahamudra, Resting in Awareness While Thoughts Move David Oromith · 22 minutes · recorded March 11, 2026
David reads instructions from a Gelug Kagyu Mahamudra root text and comments as he goes, beginning with the seven-fold posture and the difference between awareness itself and what clouds it. You rest in the stillness of being aware while thoughts keep arising, noticed but not merged with, and near the end David asks where the mind actually is.
S2 - Introduction to Mahamudra David Oromith · 86 minutes · recorded March 11, 2026
David sets out the path as a straight one, shamatha then vipashyana cutting through to pristine awareness, and Garchen Rinpoche's answer that Mahamudra alone is sufficient. Mahamudra takes the mind itself as its object rather than reasoning through the five aggregates, cutting the tree at its base. In an experiment David reads out, we rest attention as the flashlight rather than what it lights. It closes in the stillness of awareness while thoughts move, then asks where the mind is.
Overcoming Distraction in Daily Life David Oromith · 35 minutes · recorded February 8, 2026
In the shamatha meditation on the breath at the nostrils we use counting and the image of a cat watching a mouse hole to find the balance between alertness and ease. David talks about distraction as a strategy for avoiding discomfort, why phones offer a quick dopamine hit, and how training attention builds a tolerance for stillness and simple pleasures.
D7S1 - The Whole Sequence in One Session, and Carrying It Home David Oromith · 128 minutes · recorded August 25, 2025
The closing session, and the longest of the week: the whole sequence run through in one unbroken practice, from the breath through the movements of the mind to awareness itself. David draws on a teaching Lama Alan and Eva Natanya gave in June on the four modes of mindfulness, and on why observing the mind and observing awareness can be understood as one practice. He ends on lojong, and on the person at work who need not cost you the patience you came here to build.
Morning Yoga - 19 August 2025 Manu Oromith · 37 minutes · recorded August 19, 2025
Manu opens standing with the breath before moving into tabletop for wrist circles and cat and cow. The flow builds through thread the needle, downward dog and three legged dog into a held plank, mirrored on both sides, with child's pose as the rest between rounds. A standing balance, the foot resting on the opposite leg above or below the knee and never on it, closes the moving part, then seated neck stretches, and on the back a knee drawn across to each side before a final stillness.
D1S1 - Welcome, Noble Silence and the Shape of the Week David Oromith · 82 minutes · recorded August 18, 2025
David opens the retreat Samadhi inherited from the Contemplative Consciousness Network (CCN), and lays out the week: shamatha in the mornings, the four immeasurables in the evenings, and silence in between. He explains what a practical silence actually asks of you, why it is a relief rather than a rule, and how to hold the sense of stillness between sessions rather than only inside them. The session closes with posture and a short settling meditation.
The Life and the World of the Dalai Lama Lama Alan · Thubten Wangchen · 99 minutes · recorded July 5, 2025
Thubten Wangchen and Lama Alan Wallace open the CCN Dialogues on the culture the Dalai Lama came from: the Nalanda university tradition that Tibet preserved, and his four commitments, from human values to repaying India's kindness. Lama Alan traces the Dalai Lama's interest in science through to the Mind and Life Institute. Each closes with a memory, Wangchen of an illness the Dalai Lama noticed from afar, Lama Alan of his first audience and the beggar invited to the banquet.
D8S4 - The Substrate Trap, and the Moon Behind the Clouds Lama Alan · 37 minutes · recorded June 12, 2025
Why resting in substrate consciousness, however blissful and still, is not yet realisation of pristine awareness, since dharmakaya is non-dual with space itself rather than one mind or many. Lama Alan answers questions on reading Dudjom Lingpa's text without prior empowerment, and on what a first glimpse of rigpa is worth, using the image of the moon seen through thinning cloud rather than mistaking it for full realisation. He closes by encouraging the group not to dwell on unworthiness.
D5S5 - Questions on Observing the Mind and Losing the Self Lama Alan · 90 minutes · recorded June 12, 2025
A long question and answer session on why observing the mind is not the same as observing yourself, and why introspection can feel impossible even to a trained philosopher. Lama Alan addresses the anxiety that surfaces as meditation grows spacious and the sense of self loosens, and tells of the experiment in which Matthieu Ricard did not flinch at a gunshot while resting in open awareness. Questions also compare Dzogchen realisation with Advaita Vedanta.
D2S2 - Stillness Without Stimulation, and Life After Death Lama Alan · 88 minutes · recorded June 12, 2025
In the guided practice we remain still without stimulation or boredom, using the breath as an anchor rather than entertainment. Lama Alan surveys the basic supports of a contented life, food, shelter, clothing, medical care and education, before turning to the first of the text's foundation stones: whether consciousness continues after death. He argues the question cannot be set aside, since the rest of the practice depends on how it is answered.
D2S1 - The Liturgy, and Whether Dzogchen Must Wait Lama Alan · 95 minutes · recorded June 12, 2025
The morning liturgy is recited once in Tibetan, once in English and once in silence, neither abandoned nor performed by rote. A guided Dzogchen practice follows, in which we rest awareness in stillness while attending to the fluctuations in the space of the body. The text then opens with Dudjom Lingpa stating plainly what he has realised, and the question Lama Alan spends the session on is whether Dzogchen must wait until the generation and completion stages are finished.
D5S3 - The Oscillation, and Not Rushing Pristine Awareness Lama Alan · 142 minutes · recorded June 5, 2025
Lama Alan guides an oscillation practice, concentrating awareness and releasing it, then turns to Padmasambhava's instructions for directing awareness to the sky, either side, below, and the heart, without anything to visualize. He warns against being introduced to pristine awareness before genuine stillness arises, since it then becomes only a memory to be dogmatic about. A closing exercise on listening for a distant sound shows how attention can reach outward with no image at all.
D2S2 - Sensations of the Breath and the Bodyguard of Shamatha Lama Alan · 98 minutes · recorded June 5, 2025
Distinguishing the actual passage of air from the sensations it leaves at the nostrils, the final session on mindfulness of breathing covers how to stay with the target area through the pauses between breaths. Lama Alan tells the parable of the minister and his bodyguard to show why shamatha grounds vipassana, then answers questions on posture, including practising lying down for scoliosis or illness.
Training the Monkey Mind David Oromith · 31 minutes · recorded February 23, 2025
David returns to shamatha, calm abiding meditation, using the image of a monkey mind jumping from thought to thought that must be gently, patiently returned to the breath rather than yanked back in frustration. He talks about why noticing distraction is a sign the practice is working, not failing, and about learning to be with boredom in meditation until stillness itself becomes something to appreciate rather than escape.
Session 1 - Practices for Relaxation David Oromith · 69 minutes · recorded January 19, 2025
David opens by naming why so many of us live from a baseline of stress, then leads a longer guided meditation of settling body, speech and mind in their natural state, followed by mindfulness of breathing. He explains shamatha and its three qualities of relaxation, stillness and alertness, and how daily practice builds a calmer baseline rather than forcing a blank mind. The session closes with a second guided practice, open presence with all five senses.
S3 - Taking the Mind as the Path David Oromith · 86 minutes · recorded October 29, 2024
The releasing approach to shamatha, practised with the eyes open. David guides what Lama Alan Wallace calls the Dzogchen approach to mindfulness of breathing, resting in awareness itself with the rhythm of the breath only at the periphery. He gives the four benefits the Buddha named for this concentration, and the story of the monkeys raiding a retreat room in Nepal. The Vajra Essence's advice for those who cannot calm their thoughts leads into observing them without identifying or grasping.
S1 - Relaxation Comes First David Oromith · 71 minutes · recorded October 29, 2024
The session opens with settling body, speech and mind in their natural states, which is a preparation, then closes with mindfulness of breathing across the whole body, in which we note whether each breath is long or short. David explains what shamatha means and how excitation and dullness pull the attention in opposite directions. He takes the first of the three qualities, relaxation, and why trying harder only makes agitation worse. The two monks at the river carry the point about holding on.
Session 5 - Equanimity David Oromith · 86 minutes · recorded October 15, 2024
The teaching turns to equanimity, upekka, the balance underlying loving kindness, compassion and joy. David distinguishes it from flat indifference, drawing on Sharon Salzberg's story of relating differently to knee pain, and explains why acceptance means acknowledging what is, not condoning it. Questions bring stories of grief for a missed friendship and a man at peace with terminal illness. In the meditation we extend loving kindness equally to a loved one, a stranger and someone difficult.
Day 1 - Introduction David Oromith · 59 minutes · recorded August 24, 2024
The retreat opens with a meditation on settling body, speech and mind through relaxation, stillness and alertness. David then introduces the 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas, telling the story of Gyelse Togme Zangpo giving his robes and blood to a diseased beggar, and outlines how the week will move through samatha, the four immeasurables and tonglen. He closes with the text's opening homage, on how emptiness and compassion stand together, and takes a question on how discussion will work.
The Antidotes to Attachment and Navigating Loss David Oromith · 88 minutes · recorded April 17, 2024
The session opens with a short guided meditation in which we settle body, speech and mind, with refuge and bodhicitta. David completes his look at antidotes to attachment: non-attachment, contentment, gratitude and generosity, using the image of a bird resting on an open palm. He turns to loss, telling the story of Kisa Gotami and the mustard seed, and separates the cognitive work of understanding impermanence from the compassion grief itself needs. Questions bring up chronic illness, bipolar and the loss of a parent.
Guided Meditation - Settling Body, Speech and Mind in Their Natural States David Oromith · 29 minutes · recorded January 9, 2024
The posture instructions come first, in detail, then three settlings. The body is held in relaxation, stillness and vigilance at once, the inner commentary is released with each out breath, and the mind is unburdened of hopes and worries until we rest awareness on the felt body. When it wanders, David asks you to relax deeper rather than try harder.
D1S1 - Motivation as Protection, and the Fourfold Vision Quest Michael Lobsang Tenpa · 90 minutes · recorded January 6, 2024
The retreat opens with introductions, then two guided practices. The first settles body, speech and mind in their natural states; the second is the fourfold vision quest, four questions about flourishing, the support needed, how one must change and what one offers, each answered with 'may it be so'. Michael Lobsang Tenpa explains why a vast and kind motivation is itself a protection, drawing on Viktor Frankl and on Tibetan teachers who kept their sanity through years in concentration camps.
D1S4 - Appreciation, Empathy and Tenderness Michael Lobsang Tenpa · 64 minutes · recorded August 25, 2023
Three qualities that feed loving kindness before it starts. Stillness and the tactile waves are practised again first, then Michael Lobsang Tenpa works through appreciation, the quality usually translated as devotion, empathy in its cognitive and affective forms as Matthieu Ricard sets them out in Altruism, and tsewa, the basic warmheartedness he calls the stem cell of all four immeasurables. The hour of practice before dinner is spent looking at beings with eyes of caring.
D1S3 - Stillness, Silence and Spaciousness Michael Lobsang Tenpa · 61 minutes · recorded August 25, 2023
Two shamatha practices to make loving kindness possible. The first settles the body in relaxation, stillness and vigilance, and closes with a reverse body scan. Between them Michael Lobsang Tenpa passes on Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's three pillars, stillness for the body, silence for the speech, spaciousness for the mind. The second is mindfulness of breathing, attended to as tactile waves moving through the whole body.
Reflecting Before Acting David Oromith · 29 minutes · recorded May 14, 2023
In this settling meditation we move attention through touch, sight and sound before resting in open awareness, the stillness David describes as the doorway to wisdom and compassion. The talk takes the Buddha's teaching to his son Rahula, that any action of body, speech or mind is worth reflecting on first: is this helpful to me, to others, to the world, and is what I am about to say true, kind and necessary. David separates the restraint of pausing from the discernment of checking motive.
Being 'Intelligently Selfish' & Tonglen David Oromith · 29 minutes · recorded May 9, 2023
In the tonglen practice of sending and receiving we breathe in a loved one's pain as dark smoke that dissolves at a point of light in the heart, then breathe out comfort and good qualities in return, before extending the same practice to crowds of strangers and the wider world. David explains the Dalai Lama's idea of intelligent selfishness, that working for others' welfare is what actually brings happiness, and describes using tonglen in the face of grief, illness and everyday conflict.
Cultivating Joy David Oromith · 30 minutes · recorded April 30, 2023
We settle into stillness with an open awareness meditation, before turning to a recent moment of real joy, wishing that same happiness for every being and extending empathetic joy to good news witnessed in others. David talks about why Buddhism deliberately cultivates joy rather than only addressing suffering, naming empathetic joy, the practice of wishing pleasure universally shared, and the joy that comes from a settled mind and from wisdom itself.
Open Presence & Not Identifying With Our Thoughts David Oromith · 27 minutes · recorded April 2, 2023
In a practice of open presence we move through touch, sight and sound before turning to the mind itself, watching thoughts, memories and emotions arise and pass without identifying with them, like a third party looking in. David talks about why this works even in a noisy environment, and about thoughts that catastrophise or generalise, such as I am a failure or nobody cares about me. He draws on his teacher Venerable Robina's point that the real problem is believing a thought to be true.
Cultivating Wholesome Emotions David Oromith · 30 minutes · recorded January 8, 2023
The session opens with a body scan to settle the room into stillness, before we rest attention on the breath, with counting to hold focus for the twenty minute practice. David talks about deliberately cultivating wholesome states such as love, compassion and joy, not only managing difficult emotions as they arise. Drawing on the Dalai Lama, he explains how love strengthens our immunity to anger, compassion prevents cruelty, and empathetic joy counters jealousy.
Responding to Bad News or a Difficulty David Oromith · 36 minutes · recorded June 19, 2022
Slow, extended exhales calm the body before we open into stillness, inviting in a current difficulty and meeting it with resilience rather than resistance. David talks about how to respond when bad news arrives, prompted by news that he and Manu must leave their home. He describes stepping back to observe aversion rather than acting from it, then using lojong reframing once the emotion has settled.
Awakening the Being Mind and Natural Intuition David Oromith · 35 minutes · recorded April 17, 2022
In this meditation you bring a real, unresolved difficulty into stillness rather than think it over, examining where it registers in the body and what beliefs surround it, with a question from Viktor Frankl along the way. David talks about how constructive thinking curdles into rumination fed by aversion, using his own dread of a difficult client meeting as an example. He contrasts the overthinking mind with the quieter, more intuitive one that can actually solve things.
Anger-Eating Demon David Oromith · 30 minutes · recorded March 13, 2022
The meditation is a gratitude practice: we picture sunrise and settle into appreciation for the breath, the body, the mind and the people around us, closing with a few spoken affirmations. David tells the story of the anger eating demon, who grows monstrous with every threat and shrinks with every kindness. He draws out the lesson for anger at people, physical pain and unpleasant emotions alike, that what we resist persists and what we welcome softens.
Making Meditation a Simple Priority David Oromith · 27 minutes · recorded January 9, 2022
We settle into stillness with a body scan, before resting our attention on the natural breath, with counting to seven offered for those who find it helpful. David talks about making meditation a daily habit rather than a rescue for panic, comparing it to brushing your teeth: not a cure but psychological hygiene that prevents imbalance from building up in the first place. He suggests simplifying practice to something as easy as noticing the sounds around you whenever it starts to feel like a chore.
D1S2 - Dispensing with Aversion to Adversity Lama Alan · 76 minutes · recorded January 1, 2022
Adversity can only become the path if two things happen, and Lama Alan Wallace takes both: dropping the attitude of utter aversion to it, then finding a sense of well-being that holds even when things go badly. He distinguishes suffering itself, which is a symptom, from the mental afflictions that cause it, and repeats Shantideva's point that despondency helps neither what can be remedied nor what cannot. Day one ends with a guided practice of settling the mind in its natural state.
D2S1 - Renunciation, Refuge, and a Remedy for Each Adversity Lama Alan · 92 minutes · recorded January 1, 2022
A general notion is not enough, so Lama Alan Wallace works through the specific practices the text names for particular adversities: renunciation as a spirit of definite emergence, going for refuge, dispelling the arrogance that leaves a person as sterile as soil on a mountain top, purifying non-virtue by pondering the four laws of karma, rejoicing in virtue, and cherishing others more than oneself. In the guided practice we draw the darkness of the world into an orb of light at the heart, the receiving end of tonglen.
D1S1 - Whatever Attitude You Cultivate Grows Stronger Lama Alan · 94 minutes · recorded January 1, 2022
Lama Alan Wallace opens with gratitude to his teachers, then, following Gyatrul Rinpoche's commentary, says who the text is for: those who put genuine well-being above mundane pleasure. The homage follows, then the text's first lines, on how a mind habituated to dwelling on suffering turns the most insignificant circumstance into great distress, and that depression comes from the mind and not the brain. The session closes with a guided twenty minute practice of settling body, speech and mind in the natural state.
Can We Have a Choice in How Our Emotions Play Out? David Oromith · 27 minutes · recorded May 9, 2021
We rest in stillness with the breath, noticing any restlessness or urge to be busy and gently returning attention to the body's natural calm. David sets out the five stage timeline of an emotional episode, from trigger through physical and mental changes to behaviour, and asks whether we are doomed to react automatically. Drawing on Viktor Frankl's idea of the space between stimulus and response, he talks about choosing a considered response rather than a reflex.
D2S2 - The Four Kinds of Mindfulness Lama Alan · 122 minutes · recorded January 1, 2021
Resting open to whatever arises is neither open presence nor shamatha, Lama Alan Wallace says, because the senses have no reason to implode into the mental. Gyatrul Rinpoche's line that those who achieve shamatha naturally experience compassion, as they view the predicament other beings are in, draws a long commentary. He traces the four kinds of mindfulness from Dudjom Lingpa's revealed teachings, ending in self-illuminating mindfulness, which is shamatha itself. The session closes with a practice on settling the mind in its natural state.
D5S2 - Created or Begotten Lama Alan · Eva Natanya · 138 minutes · recorded January 1, 2020
Eva Natanya sets Julian of Norwich's parable of the lord and the servant beside the Dzogchen account of how samsara begins, and draws the Greek distinction between created and begotten. She then guides a practice in which we draw awareness into the heart with the Jesus prayer and a stillness that can never be moved. Lama Alan hands her what he calls a bouquet of roses with thorns: no Christian tradition allows ontological identity with God, only visionary union, and asks whether Jesus said that or his followers concluded it.
D2S2 - Christ's Infinite Intention, and the Doorkeepers of the Heart Lama Alan · Eva Natanya · 122 minutes · recorded January 1, 2020
Eva Natanya answers the challenge left from the morning by arguing that Christ's intention was infinite in the way a bodhisattva's merit is, so anyone throughout space and time whose heart is open receives it, and that an eternal hell could only follow an infinite bad deed. In the practice you bring your own death to mind, treating this as your last meditation. She then works through Hesychios the Priest on the types of watchfulness that keep the heart clear even of thoughts that appear to be good.
D1S2 - I Am Who I Am, and the Hesychast Life Lama Alan · Eva Natanya · 122 minutes · recorded January 1, 2020
Eva Natanya opens the Christian side of the dialogue with the question of being in the west and of consciousness in the east, then Moses at the burning bush and a name that was not the answer to a philosophical question. She sets out the apophatic and cataphatic ways of speaking about God, and introduces hesychasm, the life of stillness, silence and solitude. The practice is mindfulness of breathing at the nostrils, and we open into wonder that anything arises at all. Lama Alan presses her on obedience to a spiritual father who has gone astray.
D1S1 - Buddhism as Contemplative Science Lama Alan · Eva Natanya · 121 minutes · recorded January 1, 2020
Lama Alan Wallace argues that religion, philosophy and science are Eurocentric categories that do not fit Buddhism, and presents the four noble truths as testable claims rather than beliefs. He leads a guided practice in which we settle body, speech and mind in their natural states, watching the movements of the mind from stillness. He quotes Shantideva on remaining still like a piece of wood, and Eva Natanya asks whether Christianity could adapt to Buddhism as it has to Plato and Darwin.
D1S2 - Tension, Agitation, Dullness, and Stillness Amid Turbulence Lama Alan · 85 minutes · recorded January 1, 2019
The session opens with a twenty four minute guided practice in which we settle body, speech and mind in their natural states, taking the out-breath as the key and letting the breath run as it does in deep sleep. The teaching then takes three evident inner causes of distress: excessive tension, agitation and rumination, and dullness. Any one of them can be a principal cause, a sleeping pill that stops working was only treating the symptom, and stillness can be maintained in the midst of motion.
D5S1 - Watching Thoughts Like a Cowherd Lama Alan · 96 minutes · recorded January 1, 2019
In settling the mind in its natural state, eyes softly open and the gaze vacant, we watch whatever rises in the space of the mind from the stillness of awareness, as Dudjom Lingpa's cowherd watches cattle from afar. Lama Alan Wallace reads Lerab Lingpa on what the practice yields, empty forms and a non-conceptual sense that nothing can harm the mind, and warns with the story of the student who reached shamatha and did nothing but enjoy it, before mapping the four kinds of mindfulness that lead there.
D2S1 - State Checks and Dream Signs Lama Alan · 100 minutes · recorded January 1, 2019
The first full day opens with a detailed preamble: Lama Alan Wallace asks how anyone can be harmed inside a dream, and answers that we identify with what is neither I nor mine, and reify everything. A guided practice of settling body, speech and mind in the natural state follows, ending in self-knowing awareness. He then turns to Stephen LaBerge's research: the three requirements for lucid dreaming, state checks such as jumping or reading a text twice, and a dream journal to find your own dream signs.
P1 - The View of the Great Perfection Lama Alan · 124 minutes · recorded January 1, 2017
Lama Alan gives the oral transmission and commentary to a Dzogchen text by Yangthang Rinpoche, who turned eighteen years in a Chinese concentration camp into an eighteen year retreat. Four preliminaries come first, all difficult to find: a human life, the spirit of emergence, a qualified guru, the sublime dharma. The view is not theory: stop looking outward, settle the mind in its natural state, then ask where awareness comes from, where it is located, where it goes. The session opens with a guided shamatha practice.
Guided Meditation - Tonglen for the Aged, the Ill and the Dying Lama Alan · 24 minutes
Lama Alan directs tonglen through three groups in turn: those worn by old age, those living with physical or mental illness, and those close to death. For each you imagine being in their shoes, then step back and breathe in the darkness of their suffering, dissolving it in the light at your heart, the unborn and undying dimension of awareness. The wish for the dying is a transition met with serenity and without fear. It ends resting briefly in stillness.
Guided Meditation - Compassion, Beginning with Your Own Suffering Lama Alan · 26 minutes
Compassion is the heartfelt wish to be free of suffering and its causes, and Lama Alan Wallace begins with your own. You weigh how much mental suffering you have already borne and how little control you have over circumstances, then imagine freedom as an orb of white light at the heart. With each in-breath you draw in the darkness of past and future suffering and dissolve it there. You then do the same for others, closing in simple awareness.
Guided Meditation - A Body Scan of Feeling Tone, Pleasant, Unpleasant and Neutral Lama Alan · 25 minutes
Lama Alan leads a scan of the whole body, moving a field of awareness from the crown through head, arms, torso and legs, noting at each place not the sensation itself but whether it feels pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. You stay still, and when the impulse to shift arises you examine the feeling behind it. The scan then opens to the whole body, where you ask how feelings arise and dissolve, and whether you can attend without grasping or preference.
Guided Meditation - Mindfulness of Feeling Tone Across the Five Senses Lama Alan · 23 minutes
Lama Alan opens your awareness to the five physical senses, sight, sound, smell, taste and touch, resting in bare attention with the mental domain set aside. The practice then moves to the second application of mindfulness: not the sensations but the feeling tone that comes with them, pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. When an urge to move arises you stay still and study the discomfort behind it. You end by asking whether these feelings are in any way yours.
D2S4 - Unhappiness From Within, and the Ambrosial Dwelling Lama Alan · 83 minutes
Genuine unhappiness, with no external referent, comes from the mind you brought into that room, Tsongkhapa's observation set beside a friend who called nine months of solitude a river of gold. Mindfulness of breathing is the one method the Buddha recommends for minds chronically caught up in rumination, and his account of where it leads runs peaceful, sublime, ambrosial, with arisen afflictions getting no footing. A guided practice follows, and he closes on the research centre being built in Tuscany.
Great Compassion Glen Svensson · 83 minutes
Bodhicitta, the aspiration for enlightenment for the benefit of others, and the first of the two main methods for cultivating it: the seven cause and effect, running from seeing everyone as your mother through altruistic intention to that aspiration itself. Glen Svensson explains that great compassion is not simply an aspiration, as loving kindness and compassion are in the four immeasurables, but actively helping mother sentient beings, much more proactive. In the guided practice we draw blessings in on the in-breath and radiate the light of great compassion out on the out-breath.
Stillness in Motion Glen Svensson · 91 minutes
Resting in stillness while watching the movements of the mind, a practice Glen Svensson draws from Dudjom Lingpa, combines the two objects used earlier in the course. He reviews all four modules, sets shamatha inside Lama Alan Wallace and Shauna Shapiro's fourfold model of mental balance, and advises on when and how long to practise, on triggers for daily mindfulness, and reviewing the day before sleep. A guided open awareness practice follows. The course closes with the Shantideva dedication.
Merging Mind with Space Glen Svensson · 80 minutes
Awareness is directed up, right, left and down into space, then to the centre of the chest and out in all directions, loosening the sense that it is something small inside the head. Glen Svensson sets out what Buddhism means by mind: its definition as clear and knowing, the six consciousnesses, and the coarse, subtle and very subtle levels. He warns how easily stillness is mistaken for insight into emptiness. A second practice adds Padmasambhava's questioning, and we alternate looking with rest.
Qualities & Objects Glen Svensson · 80 minutes
The teaching opens and closes with a guided practice on sensations of the breath throughout the body, with the out-breath used to release tension. Glen Svensson sets out the three qualities being cultivated, relaxation, stability and clarity, using Alan Wallace's image of the roots, trunk and foliage of a tree, and reads his account of trying too hard on retreat in India. He then compares the objects available, from the breath to observing the mind, awareness of awareness and a mental image of the Buddha.
Preparing Body & Mind Glen Svensson · 78 minutes
Shamatha means calm abiding, and Glen Svensson opens by explaining why, if we want to achieve genuine happiness and well-being, shamatha practice is indispensable. He draws out the difference between pleasurable experience and genuine happiness, and where concentration fits among the three higher trainings. The seven point posture is worked through, then a fifteen minute guided meditation steps through preparing body, speech and mind. Questions cover meditating with a tremor, and whether shamatha is the first jhana.

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