Aquietando a mente: Ensinamentos sobre shamatha, segundo a Essência Vajra de Düdjom Lingpa

by B. Alan Wallace, Brian Hodel (Editor), Jeanne Pilli (Translator)

O texto aqui apresentado, a Essência Vajra, de Düdjom Lingpa, um mestre do século XIX da ordem Nyingma do budismo tibetano, é conhecido como Nelug Rangjung em tibetano, significando “o natural surgimento da natureza da existência”. É um ensinamento ideal para solucionar alguns dos mal-entendidos comuns do budismo tibetano, visto que é uma prática abrangente que pode levar uma pessoa desde os passos iniciais até a iluminação em uma só vida.
Em suas várias apresentações, shamatha é uma meditação usada para tornar a mente flexível e preparada para práticas mais avançadas. Shamatha não
é algo encontrado apenas no budismo. A prática de aprimorar as habilidades da atenção existe em diferentes contextos religiosos, como o hinduísmo, taoismo, cristianismo antigo e escolas sufis do islã. Dentro do budismo tibetano, a prática de shamatha compreende nove estágios de desenvolvimento da atenção, nos quais os pensamentos arrefecem gradativamente enquanto o poder de concentração é ampliado a ponto de se conseguir manter a atenção unifocada sobre um determinado objeto sem esforço por, no mínimo, quatro horas. A realização de shamatha é acompanhada por uma poderosa experiência de bemaventurança, luminosidade e quietude.

Genres: Buddhism, Meditation, Spirituality, Religion, Philosophy

276 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Maarten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. Some prior knowledge of Shamatha will help. A great book to read after 'The Attention Revolution' for example.

[Ishmael · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some decent insights on using mindfulness of mind (little m) as the path. I liked where Wallace said that once mindfulness is saturated, we can let go of 'doing' mindfulness.

On many other occasions, though, I was often skeptical of Wallace's understanding of things.

I also found Wallace's science shtick annoying at times. He often didn't exhibit much gnostic understanding.

[Shashi Martynova · Rating 4 out of 5]

Detailed and clear instructions on shamatha, practice preliminary to Dzogchen.

[Betty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the best dharma book I have read in a long time.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

Over the years I've gone through dozens of Tibetan Buddhism books, scouring for techniques and guidance. Many of them are designed for a monastic audience, or, having been written hundreds of years ago and intended to be accompanied by access to a guru, are not entirely transparent to understand. This book is a commentary on a text which is much more aligned with contemporary situations, and highlights a path which is approachable and direct. It is not easy, and there are many nuances to the approach which are touched upon here - however there are quite a few wonderful examples presented by Alan as he walks us through the text's progression. It is very deep and profound, and I found this book to be one of the most immediately useful and applicable to a modern practitioner. Wish I had access to a book like this years ago.

It is worth noting for the novice (I'd count myself in that group) that shamatha is a practice which is sometimes described differently, but which is the basis for development of jhanas and many steps to approaching the deeper meditative experiences. I share Alan's assessment that it is entirely indispensable if you wish to truly make real progress, but it's not easy. I believe I've seen Alan reference that it's infeasible to make progress in it without a good hour a day of practice, so I feel compelled to share that for those who, like me, want to make progress but struggle with integrating this into an existing lifestyle.

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, a bit dull in some parts. I suppose that is good to still the mind.

[Jennifer Frye · Rating 4 out of 5]

A deep dive into the shamatha practice. Maybe not for those new to Vajrayana, but a wonderful, insightful book.

[Andrei Gheorghe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very grateful to Lama Alan for commenting the original text and giving advice for practice.

There is also a recording of his 8 week retreat based on this text, on sbinstitute.com