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Teaching pt1: Alan shares his translation of Ch. 13 of Shantideva’s Compendium of Practices on the 4 applications of mindfulness. The body is simply a configuration of various parts and compilation of various substances assembled by the agent which arises from karma. What is called the body? What is the referent for “my body”? Where is the body which has all these parts? The body didn’t come from the past, nor does it go into the future. In the present, the body is like space. The body is devoid of an agent or one who experiences it. It has no essence and is designated by transient labels. This is medicine which is designed to overcome attachment and reification. When doing the practice, it is important to look carefully in order to come to conclusive certainty. Not only did I not find it, but had it been there, I would’ve found it, and recognize that it is not there.
Meditation: mindfulness of the body. Your basecamp is settling body, speech, and mind in their natural state, and make the mind serviceable. At your own pace, scan the different parts of the body to try to pinpoint the referent for that which is called the body. What comes to mind when you think “my body” and try to locate it experientially. If nothing can be found which corresponds to “this is my body,” rest in that not finding and knowing that absence without distraction. Look at the space of the body and the experience of the 5 elements. Is there anything here that is “my body”? View your body like space, and rest without distraction.
Teaching pt2: Alan comments that for Vajrayana practice, it is necessary to realize the emptiness of both self and phenomena. Realization of the emptiness of phenomena is needed in order to transmute our body, the environment, and beings into pure appearances. Our ordinary appearances arise from karma. In Vajrayana, all appearances are dissolved into emptiness, and through the power of samadhi, one is able to overwhelm ordinary appearances with pure appearances. In this way, one takes the result as the path. In dzogchen, when one breaks through to pristine awareness, pure perception arises spontaneously.
Q1. Does a program of study support shamatha practice and vice versa? Is study necessary in order to progress beyond stage 8 of shamatha?

Meditation starts at 43:35