74 Mindfulness of feelings (5)

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

Teaching pt1: Alan continues with his commentary on the section on mindfulness of feelings in Ch. 13 of Shantideva’s Compendium of Practices. When experiencing a painful feeling, develop great compassion for beings who fixate on feelings, totally identify with them, hold them close, misapprehend them, and ruminate about them. Let the feeling arouse compassion. One may also use a wisdom approach by inquiring who is the one who experiences the feeling? By gaining insight into the emptiness of the experiencer, one penetrates the entire system of simultaneous interdependence with the object and the feeling as mode of experience. Finally, one views feelings from the perspective of rigpa—i.e., peaceful, pure, and luminous. The first step is recognizing the feeling as a feeling, by being able to distinguish between the stillness of your own awareness and movements of mind. Only then, can we choose to react wisely, such as following Shantideva’s advice of remaining as still as a log of wood in the presence of klesas.
Meditation: Silent session with mindfulness of feelings following the compassion or wisdom method outlined above or another practice of your choice.
Q1. You’ve taught 3 methods of shamatha. It appears that in all of them, the practitioner takes the throne of awareness, and only the objects differ. The practices could be called awareness of the breath, awareness of the mind, and awareness of awareness. Upon achieving shamatha, is it possible to focus on any chosen object without effort? What is the role of the counterpart sign? Is it reasonable to switch back and forth between the 3 methods?

Meditation starts at 26:30