EPISODE · Oct 12, 2011 · 1H 38M
79 Shamatha without a sign, part 3
from Fall 2011 Shamatha Retreat · host B Alan Wallace
Dharma talk and meditation on Awareness of Awareness with the focus on the observer: Is there someone in there? The Bahiya (of the Garment) Sutra. Bahiya received a short discourse from the Buddha and immediately became an arhat. Bahiya was a merchant who had sailed the seas. On his eighth voyage, he was shipwrecked and washed ashore naked. He used the flotsam on the beach to cover himself and the local villagers saw him and thought he was a holy man. He became well-regarded as an arhat from whom the villagers often asked spiritual and mundane advice. Eventually Bahiya began to wonder if he was, indeed, an arhat. However a feminine diva appeared to him and said that he was not, but that he should go to the Buddha who could give him instructions. Bahiya walks a long way across India to find the Buddha and asks on three different occasions for instruction. The third time, the Buddha consents and gives the short discourse on selflessness. Bahiya becomes immediately liberated as an arhat. Three days later, he is gored by a cow and dies. There is no self/observer/agent inside, outside or in between. There is no correlate to a self in the brain. After the horrible period between about 1400 and 1750 which saw the bubonic plague and witch hunts, there was a rise in science and a mechanistic view of the world. This continues today despite enormous evidence to the contrary. 96% of the universe is metaphysical (i.e. it can’t be measured; physicists call it “black matter” and “black energy”). Everything we experience is appearances – non-physical (although there is a physical existence). What we see is the space of the mind. Being awake is dreaming with physical constraints. Dreaming is waking experience without physical constraints. The universe is enchanted with consciousness. Meditation starts at 57:44 No Question and Answer session this time.
What this episode covers
Dharma talk and meditation on Awareness of Awareness with the focus on the observer: Is there someone in there? The Bahiya (of the Garment) Sutra. Bahiya received a short discourse from the Buddha and immediately became an arhat. Bahiya was a merchant who had sailed the seas. On his eighth voyage, he was shipwrecked and washed ashore naked. He used the flotsam on the beach to cover himself and the local villagers saw him and thought he was a holy man. He became well-regarded as an arhat from whom the villagers often asked spiritual and mundane advice. Eventually Bahiya began to wonder if he was, indeed, an arhat. However a feminine diva appeared to him and said that he was not, but that he should go to the Buddha who could give him instructions. Bahiya walks a long way across India to find the Buddha and asks on three different occasions for instruction. The third time, the Buddha consents and gives the short discourse on selflessness. Bahiya becomes immediately liberated as an arhat. Three days later, he is gored by a cow and dies. There is no self/observer/agent inside, outside or in between. There is no correlate to a self in the brain. After the horrible period between about 1400 and 1750 which saw the bubonic plague and witch hunts, there was a rise in science and a mechanistic view of the world. This continues today despite enormous evidence to the contrary. 96% of the universe is metaphysical (i.e. it can’t be measured; physicists call it “black matter” and “black energy”). Everything we experience is appearances – non-physical (although there is a physical existence). What we see is the space of the mind. Being awake is dreaming with physical constraints. Dreaming is waking experience without physical constraints. The universe is enchanted with consciousness. Meditation starts at 57:44 No Question and Answer session this time.
NOW PLAYING
79 Shamatha without a sign, part 3
No transcript for this episode yet
Similar Episodes
Apr 10, 2026 ·42m
Mar 28, 2026 ·31m
Mar 13, 2026 ·30m
Mar 1, 2026 ·27m
Feb 28, 2026 ·35m