James Low - Dzogchen and Buddhist Teachings

13rd March 2024. James Low had invited questions from people watching his Zooms, which he began to answer. Note: the constant cuts in this video result from the removal of James Low's periods of silence, while waiting for the consecutive translation from the German translator. Index "(00:00) My father is 91 years of age and in the last days of his life. He is already unconscious and unaware of his surroundings. He has never been interested in religion and I think he's been agnostic all his life. Apart from accompanying him, is it possible to do more for him?" "(09:53) Does dzogchen agree with the view that all events and occurrences are a result of previous events and occurrences and hat one's experience will continue to evolve and unfold naturally just like that as it is meant to?" "(18:11) Should the fear of death diminish as we become more stable in meditation?" "(21:09) When we engage in sitting meditation, attempting to remain in non-dual riga awareness, how long should the sessions last?" "(34:09) Is it possible to retain awareness when under the influence of alcohol, cannabis and so on? Can hallucinogens be helpful in breaking habitual modes of perception or do they just lead up the blind alley of attention focused on content?" "(37:13) When sitting in practice, we put the tip of the tongue on the roof of the mouth. Where precisely?" "(38:05) Do we have a curriculum for a ngakpa training and ordination in the simply being sangha?" "(38:31) How can we begin to recognize the ego aspects of ourselves more clearly? How to approach this in a helpful way, not being sucked in or pushing it away?" Video at https://youtu.be/n0Y2DwUSWto?si=QDl1NjVqPu4TBYAg

26 April 2023. James Low had invited questions from people watching his Zooms, which he began to answer. Note: the constant cuts in this video result from the removal of James Low's periods of silence, while waiting for the consecutive translation from the German translator. Index "(00:00) What are the eight qualities of pure water?" "(03:18) Can you tell us something about the sambhogakaya ornament?" "(03:57 What are the different meanings of torma?" "(06:18) With the covid-19 restriction, I got used to saying no to many activities. And with a dharma view, I have a sense I don't need to engage in many activities, but, whether I say yes or no it seems to be me who's saying yes and no and have a egoic base. How not to get trapped in this?" "(08:57) Most dzogchen teachers insist on the necessity of absolute certainty about the view before starting this general dzogchen practices. Then you should be clear about the difference between recognizing or not recognizing, finding or not finding. To me you seem to have a different approach." "(10:39) I often treat the time of meditation as more important, more sacred than the time of my daily activities. How to change this while avoiding making the time after meditation less meaningful?" "(13:39) Outer, inner and secret: what do they mean?" "(14:25) I'm trying to understand where the distinction lies between dzogchen dharma teaching and that of certain Tibetan buddhist practices. But then I encountered the patriarchy and hierarchy in many Tibetan monasteries and so on. Is Tibetan buddhism missing compassion towards women? How can the so-called high lamas be enlightened, if they don't see good in the nature of women?" "(17:37) The function of the guru is to help you see your own light. Does this mean the guru in the flesh person or Padmasambhava or our own mind?" "(18:48) Being in a state of openness, when I'm everywhere and nowhere at the same time, it's as if I'm experiencing the feeling of freefall. It captures me so much that it interrupts my breathing and many thoughts appear." "(21:27) Do you recommend the rushen and lojong dzogchen preliminaries? Are they usually practiced in retreat?" "(22:35) How can my awareness be the red dakini?" "(27:29) How do the three doors of liberation relate to mahamudra and dzogchen?" "(30:49) Can retreat make me sad? Is it important to check where I am on the path?" "(32:23) In your book "Radiant aspiration", I read for the first time about the four meditative absorptions. Can you explain this a bit?" "(35:09) Question concerned with ecological issues." "(39:02) I have recently been told of the possibility of having cancer, but, although I have to wait for the biopsy to be 100% sure in a few days, at times there is a torrent of thoughts circulating. How was your experience when told about your body's condition with cancer and how to work with this change in our bodies?" "(42:05) Question concerning the Ganges mahamudra instruction. Tilopa says to Marpa "if you are free of all desire and do not abide in the extremes you will see all the dharma teachings of the three baskets. What are these three baskets?" "(43:55) A quote from Padmasambhava, where he says 'even though intrinsic awareness, which is self-originated primal awareness, appears to you, it is but a manifestation of mind'" Video at https://youtu.be/Pm7x9LWUH-E?si=zWNa3hVuV46JWufY

The Practice of Meditation. This Retreat will focus on The Mahamudra Instructions of Tipun Pema Chogyal. This short text shows us how to identify and respond to the many kinds of obstacles that can occur in practice. The aim of the retreat is to enable us to maintain calm, clear awareness whatever occurs. Dates: 7-14 July 2024Martin Breuger and Robert are organising. Waldemar did the audio recordings. Reiner Steiner did the video recordings.Index"(00:00:00) Text - without thinking about - without considering""(00:23:32) Conclusion - identification of Mahamudra""(00:46:58) Analysis of obstructions deviation and strain""(01:17:21) The thing to be discarded and the antidote""(01:24:10) Going astray with regard to the path""(01:31:24) Experience - awakening - understanding""(01:41:25) Colophon to the text""(01:45:27) Question - terminology - elaboration - confirmation""(01:56:04) Question - how to engage fruitfully with materialist views""(02:05:06) Question - this retreat has been a lot of listening""(02:10:24) Comment - participation and the dancing""(02:12:56) Question - no one to hear""(02:18:23) Comment - having the teachings with us""(02:22:25) Question - Lama Khyenno melody""(02:23:54) Dharma will not forget you"The Mahamudra Instructions of Tipun Pema ChogyalText in English at https://simplybeing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Mahamudra-Instructions-Tipun-Pema-Chogyal-BT-31-01-2024.pdfText in German by Robert Jaroslawski at https://simplybeing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Mahamudra_Tipun_Deutsch_V.1.5_Final-1-06-02-2024.pdfNotes on Mahamudra by Padma Karpoin English at https://simplybeing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Notes-on-Mahamudra-Padma-Karpo-JLow-27-02-2024.pdfin German at https://simplybeing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Notes_on_Mahamudra_Padma-Karpo_German_RJ_V.1.11_Final.pdfAgain, Jonathan (Jon) Lever has usefully prepared the topics on each day of the retreat in separate recording snippets.For a better understanding of the retreat, each day is separate so that you can follow the flow of the teaching in the correct chronological order.Content also available at https://simplybeing.co.uk/audio-records/the-practice-of-meditation-audio-berghof-july-2024/

The Practice of Meditation. This Retreat will focus on The Mahamudra Instructions of Tipun Pema Chogyal. This short text shows us how to identify and respond to the many kinds of obstacles that can occur in practice. The aim of the retreat is to enable us to maintain calm, clear awareness whatever occurs. Dates: 7-14 July 2024Martin Breuger and Robert are organising. Waldemar did the audio recordings. Reiner Steiner did the video recordings.Index"(00:00:00) Learning and preparation""(00:12:02) Reflections on Dharma - ordinary life""(00:24:18) Agency and inspiration""(00:37:37) Question - non-sensical as refreshing""(00:44:12) Comment - it is hard not to do""(00:44:45) Text - three realms - single great desire""(00:49:18) Appearance and emptiness - water and ice""(01:00:54) Comment - warmth connection compassion""(01:01:39) Awakening to the one taste of many""(01:22:49) Equal in taste - water and waves""(01:28:24) Question - the bodhisattva vow""(01:30:54) Text - all have the guardians nature""(01:39:31) The manifold arising with one taste""(01:50:23) Can the policeman get enlightened""(01:53:14) Comment - anything possible - Trungpa Rinpoche""(02:02:23) Text - emptiness pervades all that occurs""(02:09:41) Emptiness""(02:18:21) Text - the yoga of non-meditation""(02:38:07) This is the end of the path""(02:55:00) The quality of here and now""(03:05:28) Dissolving your conceptual mind""(03:21:48) Question - compassion at the end of the path""(03:43:55) Question - the six yogas of Naropa""(03:47:14) Question - one taste - meditating sky to sky""(03:50:13) Question - compassion - goal or tool""(03:56:58) Question - mahamudra dzogchen differences""(04:02:06) Question - what is the endgame""(04:06:29) Question - no border between self and the world""(04:19:32) Question - the tilt of the face""(04:25:23) Question - maintaining the enquiry""(04:34:14) Discussion - back to compassion""(04:38:48) Question - who is balancing"The Mahamudra Instructions of Tipun Pema ChogyalText in English at https://simplybeing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Mahamudra-Instructions-Tipun-Pema-Chogyal-BT-31-01-2024.pdfText in German by Robert Jaroslawski at https://simplybeing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Mahamudra_Tipun_Deutsch_V.1.5_Final-1-06-02-2024.pdfNotes on Mahamudra by Padma Karpoin English at https://simplybeing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Notes-on-Mahamudra-Padma-Karpo-JLow-27-02-2024.pdfin German at https://simplybeing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Notes_on_Mahamudra_Padma-Karpo_German_RJ_V.1.11_Final.pdfAgain, Jonathan (Jon) Lever has usefully prepared the topics on each day of the retreat in separate recording snippets.For a better understanding of the retreat, each day is separate so that you can follow the flow of the teaching in the correct chronological order.Content also available at https://simplybeing.co.uk/audio-records/the-practice-of-meditation-audio-berghof-july-2024/

The Practice of Meditation. This Retreat will focus on The Mahamudra Instructions of Tipun Pema Chogyal. This short text shows us how to identify and respond to the many kinds of obstacles that can occur in practice. The aim of the retreat is to enable us to maintain calm, clear awareness whatever occurs. Dates: 7-14 July 2024Martin Breuger and Robert are organising. Waldemar did the audio recordings. Reiner Steiner did the video recordings.Index"(00:00:00) Without commentary without hope""(00:09:58) Text - the original knowing of intrinsic awareness""(00:25:10) The middle way""(00:41:41) Question - the risk of acting crazy""(00:47:44) Question - illusory nature of other people""(00:49:29) Question - emptiness - unborn""(01:02:10) Question - appearance - projection""(01:08:13) Sameness and difference - diversity""(01:29:33) "Question - releasing karma""(01:34:38) Equanimity fixation and openness""(01:47:10) Question - limited perspectives and awareness""(01:55:12) Question - special quality of the ego""(01:57:33) Text - beyond diversity - equipoise""(02:13:09) Question - ordering experience""(02:18:29) Text - appearance like an illusion""(02:32:14) The ground non-elaborated""(02:37:32) Question - recognizing the ego-self""(02:44:40) Question - moving on through stages""(02:50:03) Text - the yoga of one taste""(03:10:21) Question - one taste - tantra""(03:11:17) Question - within the dream - as if""(03:20:21) Question - one taste - all at once""(03:22:04) Question - dream yoga""(03:22:44) Text - erroneous dreams within the sleep of mental dullness""(03:40:00) Question - non-erroneous dreams""(03:41:19) You cannot step out of your mind""(03:53:08) Relaxing on the occurrence""(03:57:48) Practice""(03:59:07) The mind and the body in practice""(04:01:24) Text - face and complexion""(04:16:579 Question - no choice - free will""(04:29:10) Question - why face as a metaphor""(04:44:50) Question - ethics - the immediate field - contact""(04:53:33) Question - the face before you were born"The Mahamudra Instructions of Tipun Pema ChogyalText in English at https://simplybeing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Mahamudra-Instructions-Tipun-Pema-Chogyal-BT-31-01-2024.pdfText in German by Robert Jaroslawski at https://simplybeing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Mahamudra_Tipun_Deutsch_V.1.5_Final-1-06-02-2024.pdfNotes on Mahamudra by Padma Karpoin English at https://simplybeing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Notes-on-Mahamudra-Padma-Karpo-JLow-27-02-2024.pdfin German at https://simplybeing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Notes_on_Mahamudra_Padma-Karpo_German_RJ_V.1.11_Final.pdfAgain, Jonathan (Jon) Lever has usefully prepared the topics on each day of the retreat in separate recording snippets.For a better understanding of the retreat, each day is separate so that you can follow the flow of the teaching in the correct chronological order.Content also available at https://simplybeing.co.uk/audio-records/the-practice-of-meditation-audio-berghof-july-2024/

The Practice of Meditation. This Retreat will focus on The Mahamudra Instructions of Tipun Pema Chogyal. This short text shows us how to identify and respond to the many kinds of obstacles that can occur in practice. The aim of the retreat is to enable us to maintain calm, clear awareness whatever occurs. Dates: 7-14 July 2024Martin Breuger and Robert are organising. Waldemar did the audio recordings. Reiner Steiner did the video recordings.Index"(00:00:00) Fragmentation - one thing many things""(00:10:56) The benefit of not being special""(00:17:30) Text - introducing vipassana""(00:25:29) Analysing the root of abiding and movement""(00:32:02) Practice - what is the essence of this abiding like""(00:33:40) Experiences of the essence of abiding""(00:36:56) Text - abiding - movement - awareness""(00:39:45) Reflections on abiding - movement - awareness practice""(00:56:17) Small Dharma study groups - learning by doing""(01:06:33) Text - the looker and the looked at""(01:13:04) Questions - awareness self-existing""(01:19:39) Subjectivity as an arising""(01:25:17) Question - border between self and other""(01:28:08) Text - free of assumption and its assertion""(01:32:53) Unawareness - an account""(01:44:07) Without even a name - the gurus kindness""(01:55:03) Analysis done by inherent awareness""(02:01:10) Question - teacher - opening the door""(02:03:20) Question - finding the way out of the jungle""(02:06:05) Question - into the outside world""(02:09:33) Question - implanting the view - transmission""(02:16:46) Text - identifying vipassana""(02:44:46) Discursive thought recognizing itself""(03:03:51) Sitting with an unpleasant thought""(03:04:38) Arising and vanishing""(03:13:00) Question - merging with the storyline""(03:16:39) Text - the best kindness""(03:29:33) Practice with whatever comes""(03:31:19) Available - no agenda""(03:31:54) Compassion inseparable from emptiness""(03:33:05) Question - outward effect of practice""(03:37:00) Text - analysis in terms of the three times""(03:49:57) Question - cutting the root""(03:56:58) Question - thinking about the future""(03:59:48) Question - prediction of place and date of death""(04:00:52) Question - enlightenment as motivation""(04:10:22) Text - no existence through birth cessation abiding""(04:38:34) Question - chair as just a concept""(04:39:46) Text - analysis in terms of things and no-things"The Mahamudra Instructions of Tipun Pema ChogyalText in English at https://simplybeing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Mahamudra-Instructions-Tipun-Pema-Chogyal-BT-31-01-2024.pdfText in German by Robert Jaroslawski at https://simplybeing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Mahamudra_Tipun_Deutsch_V.1.5_Final-1-06-02-2024.pdfNotes on Mahamudra by Padma Karpoin English at https://simplybeing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Notes-on-Mahamudra-Padma-Karpo-JLow-27-02-2024.pdfin German at https://simplybeing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Notes_on_Mahamudra_Padma-Karpo_German_RJ_V.1.11_Final.pdfAgain, Jonathan (Jon) Lever has usefully prepared the topics on each day of the retreat in separate recording snippets.For a better understanding of the retreat, each day is separate so that you can follow the flow of the teaching in the correct chronological order.Content also available at https://simplybeing.co.uk/audio-records/the-practice-of-meditation-audio-berghof-july-2024/

The Practice of Meditation. This Retreat will focus on The Mahamudra Instructions of Tipun Pema Chogyal. This short text shows us how to identify and respond to the many kinds of obstacles that can occur in practice. The aim of the retreat is to enable us to maintain calm, clear awareness whatever occurs. Dates: 7-14 July 2024Martin Breuger and Robert are organising. Waldemar did the audio recordings. Reiner Steiner did the video recordings.Index"(00:00:00) Dis-integration""(00:04:57) Dependent origination""(00:23:29) Questioning the qualities of the mind once again""(00:27:55) Sharing experience of how the mind is""(00:47:34) Questioning - starting from a view influences result""(00:58:38) Text - cutting involvement with the thought""(01:00:53) Practice without involvement""(01:03:42) Our felt-sense of individuality - continuity""(01:08:38) Text - arising and ended thoughts revealed""(01:12:05) Question - an agent doing the relaxation""(01:20:03) Question - causes of certain thoughts to arise""(01:27:14) Question - persistent recurring thoughts""(01:34:44) Question - examining the mind with thinking""(01:40:24) Question - container of thoughts - ocean""(01:48:51) Text - discursive thoughts arising and ceasing""(01:57:15) Question - without support - present with the flow""(01:58:05) Practice - calm abiding""(01:59:42) Text - abiding like the flow of a large river""(02:24:04) Brahmins thread - tightness and looseness""(02:32:28) Reflections on tightening""(02:35:48) Question - difficulty meditating with open eyes""(02:37:45) Question - agitation in daily life - meditation - integration""(02:38:58) Question - allowance to feel tension""(02:40:48) Text - resting as when the rope tying the straw is cut""(02:45:02) Reflection on the practice""(03:00:36) One-pointedness as basis""(03:06:08) Resting as a child gazing at a temple""(03:14:39) Resting like an elephant pricked by a thorn""(03:20:41) Question - watching a thought arise""(03:33:44) Text - like an ocean free of waves - lack - excess""(03:41:33) Collapsing the distinction between abiding and movement""(03:50:23) Question - ocean without wave""(03:53:03) Question - emotions""(03:57:32) Question - breathing thoughts in and out""(03:58:36) Question - stillness - sounds - not in time""(04:02:46) Text - how one-pointedness is in itself"The Mahamudra Instructions of Tipun Pema ChogyalText in English at https://simplybeing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Mahamudra-Instructions-Tipun-Pema-Chogyal-BT-31-01-2024.pdfText in German by Robert Jaroslawski at https://simplybeing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Mahamudra_Tipun_Deutsch_V.1.5_Final-1-06-02-2024.pdfNotes on Mahamudra by Padma Karpoin English at https://simplybeing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Notes-on-Mahamudra-Padma-Karpo-JLow-27-02-2024.pdfin German at https://simplybeing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Notes_on_Mahamudra_Padma-Karpo_German_RJ_V.1.11_Final.pdfAgain, Jonathan (Jon) Lever has usefully prepared the topics on each day of the retreat in separate recording snippets.For a better understanding of the retreat, each day is separate so that you can follow the flow of the teaching in the correct chronological order.Content also available at https://simplybeing.co.uk/audio-records/the-practice-of-meditation-audio-berghof-july-2024/

The Practice of Meditation. This Retreat will focus on The Mahamudra Instructions of Tipun Pema Chogyal. This short text shows us how to identify and respond to the many kinds of obstacles that can occur in practice. The aim of the retreat is to enable us to maintain calm, clear awareness whatever occurs. Dates: 7-14 July 2024Martin Breuger and Robert are organising. Waldemar did the audio recordings. Reiner Steiner did the video recordings.Index"(00:00:00) Embodies participation - Tsatsa""(00:08:35) Participating - for the other""(00:19:23) About Guru yoga""(00:35:24) Question - why meditation with eyes open""(00:41:25) Question - shamatha with closed eyes""(00:43:13) Guru yoga practice""(00:44:56) Practice in hot weather""(00:45:32) Text - pure support of body speech mind""(01:01:16) Useful for you - Dharma paths and vows""(01:09:58) Text - imagine Buddhas body - moon disk - sphere""(01:14:17) Tantra - imagination""(01:18:27) Imagine a moon disk""(01:18:50) Dissolving identification""(01:22:59) Imagining a sphere""(01:24:25) Everything is imagined""(01:28:59) Text - using the breath as support""(01:31:08) The vajra breath""(01:33:12) The characteristics of your breath""(01:38:45) Merge your mind with your breath""(01:43:03) Attention to the five elements""(01:50:06) Breath using Om Hung Aa""(01:55:57) Using the support of the base""(02:05:24) Involvement with sudden arisings - death - the bardo""(02:20:14) Question - clear light moment after""(02:21:43) Question - mantra recitation while dying""(02:25:25) Question - what kind of I in the dying process""(02:27:07) Living with conditions""(02:36:17) Not entering into involvement""(02:42:38) Question - willfully establishing non-involvement""(02:47:34) Sitting relaxed and open""(02:48:28) Something better than nothing""(02:54:19) Question - gaze in open sitting""(02:57:00) Text - not even a single thought""(02:58:21) Not making something of it"The Mahamudra Instructions of Tipun Pema ChogyalText in English at https://simplybeing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Mahamudra-Instructions-Tipun-Pema-Chogyal-BT-31-01-2024.pdfText in German by Robert Jaroslawski at https://simplybeing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Mahamudra_Tipun_Deutsch_V.1.5_Final-1-06-02-2024.pdfNotes on Mahamudra by Padma Karpoin English at https://simplybeing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Notes-on-Mahamudra-Padma-Karpo-JLow-27-02-2024.pdfin German at https://simplybeing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Notes_on_Mahamudra_Padma-Karpo_German_RJ_V.1.11_Final.pdfAgain, Jonathan (Jon) Lever has usefully prepared the topics on each day of the retreat in separate recording snippets.For a better understanding of the retreat, each day is separate so that you can follow the flow of the teaching in the correct chronological order.Content also available at https://simplybeing.co.uk/audio-records/the-practice-of-meditation-audio-berghof-july-2024/

The Practice of Meditation. This Retreat will focus on The Mahamudra Instructions of Tipun Pema Chogyal. This short text shows us how to identify and respond to the many kinds of obstacles that can occur in practice. The aim of the retreat is to enable us to maintain calm, clear awareness whatever occurs. Dates: 7-14 July 2024Martin Breuger and Robert are organising. Waldemar did the audio recordings. Reiner Steiner did the video recordings.Index"(00:00:00) Open sitting""(00:01:13) Five questions about the mind - shape and color""(00:07:00) Size - big or small""(00:11:05) Come from anywhere""(00:11:43) Where is abiding""(00:12:14) Going anywhere""(00:12:55) Working with the questions""(00:14:18) How about the things in the room""(00:18:51) The mind - the minds contents - involvement""(00:40:55) Dharma paths and your situation""(00:49:22) Mind isolated""(01:00:23) Mind not moving at rest whatever""(01:08:27) Mindfulness of the mind itself - non-distraction""(01:15:56) Kindness - compassion""(01:23:26) Not forgetting what you are becoming familiar with""(01:27:02) Tranquility - one-pointedness""(01:44:03) Question - intentionality""(01:47:43) Sitting with the breath""(01:49:53) Distraction and vulnerability - reframing""(01:53:35) Praying to the Guru - Lama Khyenno""(02:01:57) From dissolving into one-pointedness""(02:10:15) Consciousness - ego as distorting factor""(02:25:22) Beyond the limits of our world""(02:45:28) Questions - How to make the teachings a living reality""(02:52:04) Truth - relative - absolute""(03:05:18) The three rayas""(03:11:53) Question - complete - the perfected state""(03:22:38) Question - the importance of the view" "(03:46:32) Text - rest for as long as you can""(03:57:13) Equipoise - a dynamic balance""(04:06:31) When separation pray to your Guru""(04:08:05) For sinking dullness agitation""(04:16:09) Garab Dorje - stay on this""(04:20:06) Question - nature of Rigpa awareness""(04:27:14) Meaning - conclusions - judgements"The Mahamudra Instructions of Tipun Pema ChogyalText in English at https://simplybeing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Mahamudra-Instructions-Tipun-Pema-Chogyal-BT-31-01-2024.pdfText in German by Robert Jaroslawski at https://simplybeing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Mahamudra_Tipun_Deutsch_V.1.5_Final-1-06-02-2024.pdfNotes on Mahamudra by Padma Karpoin English at https://simplybeing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Notes-on-Mahamudra-Padma-Karpo-JLow-27-02-2024.pdfin German at https://simplybeing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Notes_on_Mahamudra_Padma-Karpo_German_RJ_V.1.11_Final.pdfAgain, Jonathan (Jon) Lever has usefully prepared the topics on each day of the retreat in separate recording snippets.For a better understanding of the retreat, each day is separate so that you can follow the flow of the teaching in the correct chronological order.Content also available at https://simplybeing.co.uk/audio-records/the-practice-of-meditation-audio-berghof-july-2024/

8 March 2023. James Low had invited questions from people watching his Zooms, which he began to answer. Note: the constant cuts in this video result from the removal of James Low's periods of silence, while waiting for the consecutive translation from the German translator. Index "(00:00) Padmasambhava said, 'Though the view should be as vast as the sky, keep your conduct as fine as barley flour. Please expand.'" "(03:59) There's a question from somebody who's been practicing Dharma for 30 years and suffers from health problems of particular autoimmune diseases, which affect the whole nervous system, making it very difficult to meditate or even just relax. Most of the time, there's some tension in the body, which makes meditation difficult, and the person is often discouraged." "(09:07) During our daily activities like work and planning, how to maintain awareness of an open fresh mind? The requirements of normal life require concentrating on tasks, goals, results, and achievements, so that my work produces something of value that is judged by other people. So, how to stay with the precision of the task while maintaining open awareness?" "(13:47) Although the view never feels very far away, I find that I'm not sitting to meditate as often as I used to. Should I set the time and stick to it and write myself reminders?" "(18:25) You have talked of other realms and so on, but is it possible to take a completely secular approach to Dzogchen?" "(24:14) A question wanting a repetition of the five questions of inquiry of the mind." "(28:20) I have a teacher, a western disciple of a Tibetan Lama. He is authorized to teach, but not to give empowerments or tantric teaching. Can I think of him as my guru or as my teacher? He says I should see his guru as my guru, but I have not met this guru." "(30:17) I am a beginner psychotherapist. Are there techniques in psychotherapy whose foundation is the Dzogchen teachings? Can this help the patient?" "(33:15) Is one way to interpret the term sentient beings as self-states, in terms of a psychological perspective?" "(34:45) Concerning Padmasambhava practice, what is the difference between an outer mantra and an inner mantra, with respect to their meaning usage and effects?" "(43:16) What can we do practically to distinguish awareness of itself by itself versus the awareness based on reified self?" Video at https://youtu.be/gLik8cQt7bw?si=cETr773pjMT3TW82