Alan Wallace Shamatha Teachings Fall 2010

Following a silent meditation session, Alan addressed a wide range of questions from students:Post-retreat advice regarding refuge, ethics, and the importance of spiritual friends • Can I drink one or two beers without affecting my meditation? • How to adapt yourself to wake naturally at 3AM • How to use meditation on a physical, visual object as a calming technique • Can bodhisattvas or arhats suffer? • Discussion of alternate pronunciations of Padmasambhava’s mantra and the Vajrasattva mantra • What do Buddha statues’ hand gestures mean? • Why are the three types of ethics not taught much in the West?