Having been interested in meditation for some time now, I have begun to explore the different meditation practices and the philosophies that support them. I am particularly interested in Tibetan Buddhism and the writings of Allan Wallace. This article will explore what I've learned about these different styles of meditation and how they can be applied to everyday life.
For many years, Dr. Alan Wallace has taught the study of Tibetan Buddhism to students around the world. He has also devoted himself to research that explores the relationship between Buddhist practices and Western science. In this book, he describes how samatha, or objectless awareness, connects us with our deepest source of consciousness. This practice combines a meditative experience with an experiential process that connects the practitioner with the meaning of the world.
As an author, he has published dozens of books on the subject of Tibetan Buddhism. His work has been translated into Dutch, German, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish.
He is director of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies, which seeks to integrate contemporary science with classical contemplative traditions. A member of the department of religious studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, he has been teaching in the Santa Barbara area for more than fifteen years.
During his years in Santa Barbara, he has taught courses in Buddhism and Buddhist-Christian retreats. Wallace leads two eight-week residential meditation retreats in Santa Barbara each year.
The mind is a complicated entity. There are countless different ways to conceive of it. For example, there are multiple levels of consciousness. Some are more sophisticated than others. One example is introspection.
There are many different ways to practice meditation. One way is the meditation of deflecting thoughts when they arise. Another is to rest in awareness of the present moment.
During a six-month solitary retreat, Wallace studied Buddhism. This included studying the Buddhist concepts of the mind, meditation and science. He incorporated all of these into his practice.
Aside from the practice, Alan Wallace taught the connection between science and religion. As a scientist, Wallace has a background in ecology and physics. He also studied Tibetan and Asian languages and philosophy.
He is a prolific writer, translator and scholar. His publications include forty books. In addition, he has translated five classic Tibetan texts on consciousness.
He is president of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies. He is also the author of The Taboo of Subjectivity: Toward a New Science of Consciousness (Oxford University Press, 2000).
A few decades back, a few of us were lucky enough to be enrolled in a prestigious graduate program at an MIT affiliated research lab. Our professors, notably Alan Wallace and Roberto Fiol, have spent the better part of a decade looking for the holy grail of science and religion, the nexus of mind. Hence, our curiosity was piqued. We were intrigued by their zeal for a more holistic and holistic approach to the human experience. It was a bumpy road but one that we were happy to occupy. As we are still on the road, here are a few things that we have learned along the way.
In particular, we have been impressed with the quality of the research material - despite the best efforts of the editors and editors in chief - and the enthusiasm of our fellow students. We also discovered a few gems not previously on our hit list. Among them, the aforementioned exemplifiers, and several others.
Alan Wallace is one of the foremost voices in the emerging dialogue between contemporary Buddhist thinkers and scientists. He is a prolific writer and translator, and a founder of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies. His writings and his lectures on contemplative science are an important resource for people seeking to integrate the knowledge of Buddhism with Western science.
Lama Alan Wallace is an internationally respected scholar of Buddhism. He has spent more than forty years studying and practicing the Buddha's teachings. In addition to his studies, he has translated dozens of Buddhist texts. For several years, he worked as a translator and interpreter for Venerable Gyatrul Rinpoche, the senior teacher of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism.
He has a PhD in religious studies from Stanford University. Before pursuing his doctorate, he earned a bachelor's degree in physics at Amherst College. After graduating, he taught in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
