Session 57: Awareness of Awareness and More on Catatonia-Inducing Materialism

Épisode de Alan Wallace Shamatha Teachings Fall 2010 · 18 novembre 2010 · 49 min

The point of awareness of awareness is NOT to prove that there’s no one who is aware because there is. Not finding any-specific-one who controls the attention and concluding that we don’t exist (and therefore no one else exists) is a nihilistic, not the Buddhist view. Unfortunately, it is exactly that close facsimile of the Madhyamika view that is most often picked up and allied with by the archetypical scientist materialist Alan likes to debate with. “We are just our brains. We are just the summary of our parts. We are our thoughts/cognition” are simple statements that come out of people’s observation to one particular part of the human experience, seeing there is no one there who’s in charge and concluding there’s no one at all. Their disastrous consequences come out of the implied refutation of free will and moral responsibility. Yet, we do make choices or else one couldn’t become a neuroscientist. And there IS a perceiver. The opposite statement begs the question of “who concludes I don’t exist?”

The practice of Dharma (and meditation in particular) is not to refute free will, and plunge us into an existential depression. We can get that, free of charge, by simply having “faith” the materialistic view. The practice of Shamatha (and especially awareness of awareness) is an invitation to investigate HOW we, our perceptions, and our awareness of them exist in relation to each other. So that’s what we did in the guided session that followed. Enjoy!

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• Session 91: (Discussion Only) Bringing Good Motivation into Daily Life 30 décembre 2010
• Session 90: (Discussion Only) Letting Our Minds Become Dharma 30 décembre 2010
• Session 89: (Discussion Only) Envisioning the Future You Would Love to Live 8 décembre 2010
• Session 88: (Discussion Only) Genuine Happiness in Everyday Life 8 décembre 2010
• Session 87: (Discussion Only) Balancing Discipline and Gentleness and a Q&A Session 8 décembre 2010
• Session 86: (Discussion Only) Possible Effects of Shamatha on Cognitive Deterioration 19 novembre 2010
• Session 85: (Discussion only) The Four Immeasurables Keeping Tabs on Each Other 19 novembre 2010
• Session 84: (Discussion Only) Some Brief Remarks on Selecting Your Shamatha Practice 19 novembre 2010
• Session 83: Equanimity and a Great Encompassment of our Practices 19 novembre 2010
• Session 82: Awareness of Awareness, Shamatha That Can Assist at the Moment of Death 19 novembre 2010
• Session 81: Going Outward with Equanimity 19 novembre 2010
• Session 80: Awareness of Awareness and Potentially the Last Soap Box Speech on Materialism 19 novembre 2010
• Session 79: Happy Gratitude and Empathetic Joy 19 novembre 2010
• Session 78: Deactivating the Coarse Mind with Awareness of Awareness 19 novembre 2010

Tous les épisodes de Alan Wallace Shamatha Teachings Fall 2010