Stilling the Mind: Shamatha Teachings from Dudjom Lingpa's Vajra Essence

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Stilling the Mind: Shamatha Teachings from Dudjom Lingpa's Vajra Essence
By: Alan Wallace

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Author: Alan Wallace
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9780861716906
Publication Date: 2011

Product Code: 17173

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About the author

Contents

Across more than a millenium, the lamas, meditators, and scholars of Tibet created a vast literature dedicated to revealing the profound truths about who we are and how we should make use of our lives. Sages living in mountain caves and monastics pursuing their daily rituals used these texts to wear down their obscurations and make space for innate clarity and wisdom to manifest. For those of us in the modern world with hectic lives, however, such teachings from another time and place can be nearly impenetrable. To approach them, we need a guide, a helping hand from someone who is like ourselves but who has spent years learning the ins and outs of the sometimes secretive world of Tibetan Buddhist practice.
Bestselling author and former Buddhist monk Alan Wallace is one such guide. With his trademark enthusiasm and keen intelligence, he introduces us here to one of the most cherished works of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism, Dudjom Lingpa's Vajra Essence. Written in the nineteenth century, the Vajra Essence presents the practice of Dzokchen, the Great Perfection the highest of all the meditation traditions and its contents have only been revealed to those with the requisite training.
With permission from his teachers, Alan reveals here the works opening section, which presents the methods for calming the mind and bringing it to a state of effortless concentration, the practice of shamatha. In his earlier book, The Attention Revolution, Alan guided readers through the stages of shamatha step by step. Here he uses the wisdom of the Dzokchen teachings to open up this practice into a space of freedom from hope and fear. He makes obscure concepts intelligible to contemporary readers and allows us to glimpse the profound realizations of a great spiritual adept.

Contents: STILLING THE MIND - Shamatha Teachings from Dudjom Lingpa's Vajra Essence

Preface vii

1. INTRODUCTION 1

Dudjom Lingpa and the Vajra Essence 4

The Vision of Dudjom Lingpa
18

Teacher and Assembly in Dialogue 21

2. THE QUESTIONS OF FACULTY OF WISDOM 25

The Appearance of Teachers 28

3. THE QUESTIONS OF GREAT BOUNDLESS EMPTINESS 35

The Swift Path - The Great Perfection 36

Qualifications of a Student of the Great Perfection 42

Difficulties Inherent in Other Vehicles 48

The Time to Practice Vajrayana 54

Bodhichitta 55

4.
TAKING THE MIND AS THE PATH
61

The Primacy of Mind 66

The Emptiness of Mind 73

Mind's Essential Nature 88

The Source of Appearances 96

The Fruits of Practice 104

5. THE EXPLICIT INSTRUCTIONS 109

Psychophysical Obstructions 113

Settling the Mind in Its Natural State 118

Nyam - Signs of Meditative Experience 124

Signs of Progress 134

Nyam Emanating from Different Psychophysical Constitutions 143

Accomplishing the Practice 144

6. ACCOMPLISHING SHAMATHA 149

7. PITFALLS 157

Hazards in the Later Stages of Shamatha Practice 158

The Role and Significance of Shamatha 168

Experiencing the Substrate Consciousness 170

Deeper Possibilities of Shamatha Practice 177

Notes 181

Glossary 183

Index 191

About the Author 201

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