Venture Fourth Weekly Work
Week Twenty March 18, 2010

We will come together I less than a week. I am looking forward to it and know you are also. This week I have had the opportunity to talk to most of you and know you are well prepared for our time together.

VF Intensive 3; probable schedule (more variation Friday with more sittings)

6AM: optional wake up

6:30: optional meditation sitting

6:45: second wake up bell for those not meditating. 

7:15: breakfast; verbal silence though the night, until mid-breakfast;

7:45 bell will sound to open the day to speech.

8:15: meditation: silent and "Tuning". 

9:00: morning session

12-2: lunch/ rest/ walk...

2:00 afternoon session

5:00 relaxed time

5:30: supper and clean up. 

6:30: meditation period while clean up is finished.

7-9: evening session (could go to 9:30).

9:00: silent meditation

9:30: rest; re-enter silence until mid breakfast.

Wednesday evening: go around

Then silent sitting

Thursday AM:

Optional early sitting/ breakfast

8:15AM sitting: all

9AM-Talk from Aaron on 5 stage DZ meditation

then sitting with "Vision is Mind," "Mind is Empty," "Emptiness is clear Light," "Clear Light is Union," and "Union is Great Bliss."

break

11:15 elements talk and guided meditation

12-2 rest

2PM – basic dzogchen instruction and practice

break

3:30 further instruction and guided meditation. This is Aaron's introduction to "Releasing into Emptiness" based on the 5 stage practice, element practice, and dzogchen.

5:00 relaxed time

5:30-6:30PM dinner

Thursday evening

6:30 sitting all – guided vipassana and dzogchen sitting

7:30 discussion on afternoon instructions

(silence from bedtime Thursday to Saturday morning)

Friday all day:

Practice, vipassana and dzogchen, elements, 5 stage meditation, and Aaron's new practice, with occasional instruction periods. We will have some group guided sittings and some independent practice.

Friday night, talk from Aaron - how do these practices relate to our intention to live in the world with clarity and love? Then sitting again.

Saturday all day and Sunday morning: these are some of the topics we are likely to touch upon. An order has not yet been decided.

-Further discussion of Friday's practices.

-Talk from Aaron and discussion on dark night of senses and of soul.

-Talk from and with Barbara and Aaron about choosing your ongoing curriculum

-Discussion of the distinctions between Awareness, access concentration and jhana

-Silent practice

-Small groups -

Suggested Readings for intensive 3 (You will not all have read everything but these readings will be helpful, in order of importance. Most have been suggested before.) Do not panic that you have not read it all. Reading is just reading; the practice is what matters most.

1) I know you have all been reading Flight of the Garuda

2) Two talks on the elements:

http://archives.deepspring.org/Books/AwakenedHeart/AppendixA.php

3) Geshe Tenzin Wangyal from VF / archive site

http://archives.deepspring.org/Aaron/ClassSeries/2009/Venture/Readings/geshe.php

4) consciousness from VF site

http://archives.deepspring.org/Aaron/ClassSeries/2009/Venture/Readings/VFconsciousness.php

5) Just these short words below.

The four visions of tögal are: (from Sogyal Rinpoche)

direct realization of reality itself

increasing experience

awareness reaching full maturity

dissolution of experience into the nature of reality

". . . The 'four appearances of thögal' . . . In the practice of thögal one utilizes special pathways to elicit the spontaneously present and primordially pure appearances of awareness, so that they actually arise in one's vision, perceivable through the gateways of the eyes. Through utilizing the proper methods of the gaze and posture to elicit these pure appearances while abiding in a state of non-dual awareness, one is able to exhaust all grasping towards all the phenomena of cyclic existence. Thus, one is able to achieve complete enlightenment and absolute freedom from suffering. Since there is no grasping to one's ordinary human form, it dissolves back into the elements and becomes the nature of pure light, what is known as a rainbow body. From this state, one can then ceaselessly work in unfathomable ways to free all sentient beings from suffering and establish them in the state of supreme happiness.

"Understanding the stages of the four appearances is essential to the practice of thögal. Through these teachings one is introduced to the ways that these appearances manifest, increase, culminate, and then eventually are exhausted. One is also given instruction on how to enhance the practice of eliciting these pure appearances while simultaneously abiding in non-dual awareness."

6) Consciousness and its objects, 4 class series fall, 2007

http://archives.deepspring.org/Aaron/ClassSeries/2007/

1. Insight Meditation Class, Fall 2007, Consciousness and Its Objects, Class 1: September 18, 2007

2. Insight Meditation Class, Fall 2007, Consciousness and Its Objects, Class 2: October 2, 2007

3. Insight Meditation Class, Fall 2007, Consciousness and Its Objects, Class 3: October 16, 2007

Insight Meditation Class, Fall 2007, Consciousness and Its Objects, Class 4: October 30, 2007

I look forward to seeing you all on Wednesday. Please bring what you need to be warm enough to do some sitting outdoors unless the weather is very cold and wet.

With love, Barbara