Dzogchen and Mahamudra are harmoniously complementary. Their evocative styles offer us beautiful metaphors which can sweetly and poetically ease us out of our rigid concepts. The retreat was focussed on two texts, the Mirror of Luminous Revelation, a dzogchen treasure text from Nuden Dorje Drophen Lingpa Drolo Tsal, and the Mahamudra Upadesha by Tilopa. The Nuden Dorje text was previously translated as “The Mirror of Clear Meaning”. Teachings on the Mirror of Luminous Revelation started on Sunday, while teachings on the Mahamudra Upadesha began on Wednesday.here .
↓ Download recordings: James Low – Germany – Eifel – 2019 October
1 Saturday - James Low – Germany – Eifel – 2019 October
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01 Investigating Your Own Situation
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02 Relating to the World – Conduct
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03 All Is Not Well With the Trees – Responding to Climate Change
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04 Shine Practice
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05 Attention, Distraction, Identity
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06 Vipassana Meditation
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07 Seeing What Shows
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08 Refuge and Bodhicitta
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09 Impermanence
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10 Death
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11 The Preciousness of a Human Birth
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12 Karma
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13 Suffering
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14 Signs and Signifiers
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15 Without Hope – Aspiration, Intention
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16 Emptiness
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17 Introducing the Padmasambhava Practice
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18 Comments on the Padmasambhava Text
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19 Comments on Additional Verses
2 Sunday - James Low – Germany – Eifel – 2019 October
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01 Text – The Mirror of Luminous Revelation
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02 Revelation, Primordial Purity, Original Knowing
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03 Free of All Limiting Polarities
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04 Seeing Our Own Face
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05 Preparation in an Isolated Place
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06 About Purification
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07 Reflecting on Samsara
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08 Question – Being in Realms
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09 Question – In the World Without Interpreting, Constructing
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10 Brief Sitting
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11 Remarks on Refuge, Clarity, Unobstructedness
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12 This Life Is Rare and Precious
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13 Transient and Vulnerable
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14 Taking Refuge – Protection at the Time of Death
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15 Question – Dementia
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16 The Commitment of Enlightenment Mind
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17 Question – Absolute and Relative Discourse in the Same Text
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18 Actions Have Consequences
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19 Wandering in Misery
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20 Relying on the Guru
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21 This Is Our Path – The Path to Who We Are
3 Monday - James Low – Germany – Eifel – 2019 October
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01 Coming Out of Sitting Practice
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02 Preliminary Practices and Dzogchen
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03 Devotion, Renouncing Autonomy, Gratitude
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04 Introducing Guru Yoga Practice
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05 Remarks on Guru Yoga Practice
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06 Breath and Body
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07 Text – Knowing Our Mind
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08 Where Does the Mind Rest?
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09 Advice Concerning the Mind Questions
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10 Does the Mind Go Someplace?
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11 Does the Mind Have Shape, Colour?
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12 Does the Mind Have a Size?
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13 Consciousness Raising Through the Five Questions
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14 Tsog – Judgement, Self-Limitation and Pleasure
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15 Question – Buddha Nature, Mind, Ground
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16 Knowing Our Unknowable Mind
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17 Not an Entity – No Defining Characteristics
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18 Untouched by Birth, Death, Coming and Going
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19 An Encouragement to Keep Your Mind Open
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20 Not Created, Not Destroyed, Never Changing
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21 Opposition, Displacement and the Mind
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22 Staying Present With Experience
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23 Running a Commentary
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24 The Mind Does Not Hide
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25 Simplicity – The Freshness of What Is There
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26 Guru Yoga Again
4 Tuesday - James Low – Germany – Eifel – 2019 October
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01 Difficulties of Words and Language
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02 Sound and Silence – Experiences Within Emptiness
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03 Text – Unnecessary Complication
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04 Seeing Red as Red
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05 Reification
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06 From One Entity All the Myriad Entities Arise
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07 Awakening to Our Self-Deception
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08 Relax and Release
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09 Question – No Way I Can Activate This
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10 Question – Effortful Versus Fresh Recollection
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11 The Free Fall of Happenstance
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12 No Deception
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13 Question – Intrinsic Presence, Self-Liberating
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14 Straying From Where We Are
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15 The Unfolding of Duality
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16 Question – Depression
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17 Taking Up Positions
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18 Being True to the Diversity of Ourselves
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19 Ceaseless Involvement
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20 Question – Dark Retreat
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21 Evaluating and Inflating Ideas
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22 Making Objects Important
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23 Question – Sleepiness and Meditation
5 Wednesday - James Low – Germany – Eifel – 2019 October
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01 About Dana
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02 Sangha
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03 Text – Avoid Effort
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04 Question – Commentary and the Unelaborated Is
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05 Question – Emotions the Same?
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06 Let This Mind Abide as It Is
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07 Question – Sensitivity, Compassion and Action
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08 Abide in the Ever-Fresh State
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09 Avoid Involvement
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10 Question – The Five Wisdoms
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11 Whatever Comes, Just Let It Come
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12 Limitations Dissolve
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13 Stay on the Point of the Arising
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14 Practise Without Questions or Evaluation
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15 No Additives – Just This
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16 Misty, Foggy States – Further Meditation Advice
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17 Looking for Something – Interpretation
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18 Informal Sitting
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19 Nothing to Be Done
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20 Stay Present
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21 Occurrence
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22 No Duality
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23 Three Kinds of Transmission
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24 Trust Awareness
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25 Here and Now
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26 Abide in the Intrinsic Kindness and Connectivity
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27 Rest in Meditative Evenness and Subsequent Experience
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28 This Is Sufficient
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29 This Is Beneficial
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30 This Is Worth Protecting
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31 Not for Discussion – Colophon
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32 Finding What You Need
6 Thursday - James Low – Germany – Eifel – 2019 October
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01 Connectivity, Collaboration, Mood and Resonance
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02 Someone There to Blame
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03 Question – Love Relationships
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04 Observing How We Make Ourselves Small
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05 About Tilopa and Naropa – Oil and Learning
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06 Text – The Mahamudra Middle Way of the Ganges
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07 Coming Into Contact With the Text
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08 Obstacles, Hardships and Difficulties
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09 Mahamudra Cannot Be Taught – Relax at Ease
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10 Investing and Projecting Our Energy
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11 If You Release Your Binding – The Mind Seeing the Mind
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12 Space Allows the Revelation of What Is There
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13 Strange Experiences in Practice
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14 Seeing the Emptiness of Your Something
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15 Attachment to Objects of Our Daily Use
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16 The ‘I’ of Awareness Is Never Loved
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17 Question – The Energy in ‘I Love You’
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18 A Latent Level of Me-Ness
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19 Not Constructing – Trusting in the Mind
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20 Question – Retire From Social and Work Interaction?
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21 ‘I’ as Awareness, ‘I’ as Ego
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22 Have You Ever Been Seen?
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23 Question – Practice Bringing About Manifestation
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24 Arising and Vanishing
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25 Sitting Without Trying to Make It Different
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26 Hearing Sound as Sound
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27 Question – Visceral Feeling, Streams of Perception
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28 Question – Present With People Without Diagnosing
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29 Question – Educated Discriminative Awareness
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30 Question – Dominant Phenomena in Awareness
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31 Question – Instant Interpretation of What Is Seen
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32 Climate Change – Offering a Peaceful Mind
7 Friday - James Low – Germany – Eifel – 2019 October
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01 Living in Time – Climate Change Activities
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02 It Is Your Practice – Transmission
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03 The Consciousnesses and Awareness
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04 Question – Indifferent but Differentiated Investigation
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05 About Compassion
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06 The Essence of Your Mind Transcends Colour and Shape
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07 Question – Appearances Change, Mind Unchangeable, Bardo
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08 Question – Optimism, a Concept?
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09 Not Tainted by Virtue or Vice
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10 Question – Forgiveness, Identifying With the Thought
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11 The Clear Light Essence of Your Mind
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12 Question – Movie Analogy
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13 No Basis for ‘It Exists in This Way’ – Receiving, Not Interpreting
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14 Question – As Psychotherapist, Being in the Story
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15 No Phenomena That the Mind Does Not Encompass
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16 Desist From Physical Activity – Look Into the Dharma of Immediacy
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17 Your Body Has No Substance
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18 Your Mind Is Beyond Being an Object of Thought
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19 Free of Discarding or Keeping
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20 Rely on the Mind Itself – Mahamudra View of Ignorance
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21 Identifying With Openness
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22 Unable to See the Clear Light Mahamudra
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23 The Vow to Guard Against Thought
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24 Question – Who Is the One Who Focuses on the Mind?
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25 Self-Arising, Self-Quiescent
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26 Question – With No Mental Conscious Activity
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27 Non-Abiding, Non-Referential, Free of All Desire
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28 Tiredness, Sleepiness, Distraction
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29 The Three Baskets
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30 Unvirtue and Obscuration
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31 Foolish Beings Uninterested in This Truth
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32 Carried Away by the River of Samsara
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33 The Blessing of a Wise Guru – Welcome as You Are
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34 More Sitting
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35 Climate Change – Bringing Space Into the Response
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36 Cutting Limiting Forms of Thought
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37 Practice – Climate Change, Including Others
8 Saturday - James Low – Germany – Eifel – 2019 October
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01 Entering the Path of the Bodhisattva
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02 Text – Look at the True Essence
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03 Free of All Aspects of Subject and Object
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04 If There Is No Distraction – Anxiety
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05 Comment – Commuting With Ghosts
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06 If There Is No Deliberate Activity
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07 Question – Leading a Group, Keeping Focus
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08 If There Is No Hope and Fear
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09 Beyond Being an Observable Object – Unsurpassed Awakening
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10 Task – Formulating Questions
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11 Question – Phobias
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12 Question – External and Internal Control, Suffering
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13 Question – Choice and Reaction
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14 Question – Sensory Input and Attention in Practice
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15 Question – How to Help a Child With Asperger’s
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16 Questions – Mahamudra and Dzogchen
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17 Question – OK to Be Open, Protection
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18 Question – Meditation Differences in Mahamudra and Dzogchen
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19 Question – Meditation Without Dharma
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20 Question – Dzogchen, Spot Wrong Teachings
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21 Question – Is It Really Enough? Losing the Freshness
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22 Mental Dullness Revealed in Clarity
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23 Worldly Phenomena, Worldly Activity
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24 Attachment and Aversion to Country and Those Around
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25 Stay Alone in the Forest – Attain Non-Attainment
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26 Cut the Root of the Mind
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27 Question – Do Great Yogis Fall in Love?
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28 Question – How Is It to Attain Non-Attainment?
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29 The Ego Does Not Get Enlightened
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30 Darkness Dispelled by a Single Lamp
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31 Taking Things Too Seriously – Illusion and Delusion
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32 The Truth Beyond Intellect – Free of Activity
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33 Cutting the Root of the Ruthness of Ruth
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34 Question – Phenomena, Me and Not Me
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35 The Signifier and the Signified
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36 Question – Understanding Unborn
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37 Question – Responding to Imagined Threats
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38 Your Identity Is a Maintained Construct
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39 Question – Cutting the Root of the Relative Mind
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40 Let the Water Polluted by Thought Become Clear
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41 Leave Appearances as They Are – Just Floating in Air
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42 Question – Padmasambhava and Yeshe Tsogyal
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43 Clear of the Veil of the Obscurations and Traces
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44 The Arising and Passing of Experience
9 Sunday - James Low – Germany – Eifel – 2019 October
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01 Surface – Nothing to Find
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02 Avoid Pride and Calculation
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03 Appearances Are One’s Own Appearance
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04 Complete Freedom From Extremes, Bias, Hope
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05 A Summary – Waters Rushing, Gently Flowing, Meeting
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06 For Those of Limited Intellect – How One Can Learn
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07 Exploring and Observing
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08 Relying on a Karmamudra – A Sexual Connection
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09 Concluding the Text
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10 Into Daily Life – At the Airport
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11 Different Kinds of Dancing
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12 Any Situation Is Good
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13 Commentary on the Cuckoo of Awareness Text
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14 Question – Foreground and Background
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15 The Disease of Effort Discarded
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16 After Practice – Taking the Practice Into Life
