06 Mindfulness of Breathing

Alan starts off talking about shamatha as a contemplative technology. It is about making the mind serviceable and refining our mental awareness. Shamatha is healing and it becomes a path to exceptional health and mental balance.
For the first time, Alan gives instructions of a different technique to use before the shamatha meditation. It has been used by many yogis in the past and also has spread widely nowadays. It is called the nine fold expulsion of the residual prana.

After the meditation, Alan emphasizes the importance of ‘mindfulness of breathing’ by quoting the Perfection of Wisdom sutras in 10.000 stanzas. Alan elaborates on the meaning of the last sentence “…by dwelling with introspection and with mindfulness, eliminates avarice and disappointment towards the world by means of non-objectification...”. Alan reflects on sukkha and the genuine sources of happiness versus hedonic pleasure.

It follows by two questions from the participants:
- Clarification of the answer Gyatrul Rinpoche gave once to Alan regarding the practice of Dzogchen: “view it”.
- A retreatant comments on her preference to short breathing.

Meditation starts at 23:35