Hi All,

Here’s Indo-Tibetan Meditation Master and Harvard Medical School Psychologist Dr. Dan Brown discussing the Mahamudra path to full enlightenment and some of the more “paranormal” capabilities he’s witnessed in Tibet.

Curious your thoughts  

Dr. Dan Brown Interview

I'm curious to hear feedback about his retreats. I've been interested in exploring Dzogchen / Mahamudra and he seems to be a great teacher but I would hesitate to fork out $1500 for a retreat. 

For me the 2 POW retreats I've attended have been life changing.

Thanks Noah! I'll probably do one of the early 2021 ones. Did you do two level 1 retreats? 

Suits like that don't come cheap! I listened to an interview he did with Michael Taft and he told a long story about a philanthropic venture with a good friend of his who ran a hedge fund. Probably just me being cynical, but it seemed boastful and a bit off. I also found he talked really fast and seemed like he was trying to display as much expertise/learning as possible and was quite rigid. But again, that's just based on listening to a 1 hour interview and my own prejudices.

I get the same feelings every time I hear an itnerview with this guy. 

Right, why pay for dinner at a fancy restaurant when you can have a free lunch on the DhO?!

Yeah

We alrdeady have a pretty extensive Dan Brown thread here  coverin one os his books, retreats and some YouTube videos

I lisented to that same interview just yesterday and he really does seen to talk really fast and try to displat as much expertise/learning as possible but then on the other hand, he has been entrusted with teachings that nobody in the West has ever seen or gotten.

I may have asked you this before but does he give pointing out instructions in his first retreats?

I'm generally distrustful of secret teachings and lineage - it smells of marketing + inherited wealth. 

Care to expand on this Noah?

He makes some radical, unbelievable claims.

1. Complete extirpation of negative emotions
2. Full concentration abilities (all 9 stages) in 2.5 days with proper instruction
3. Saw a guy walk on water
4. rainbow body is real.

There do seem to be a wide variety of accounts of rainbow body, can't speak for the Dan Brown but I'm leaving the option open.  ;)

Read any of Tulku Urygen Rinpoche's books. Rainbow Body is real and has been observed many times

Jesus has been spotted in toast many times, too.

Just because he wrote it doesn't mean it's real. His books are full of lots of fantastical nonsense.

Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence.

Like at minimum, being caught on film. 

I should say that I think Dan Brown is fascinating, and probably a fantastic meditation teacher.  Just that some of his claims go beyond what science would consider possible, and that imo brings into doubt some of his more plausible claims (in that they don't violate laws of physics) such as getting rid of all negative emotions. 

Getting rid of all emotions may be a bizarre and largely unsupportable claim, but don't let that deter you from his views that violate the laws of physics.  ;)  

Anyhow, science doesn't really know s*** about conciousness, and likely absolutely nothing about effects of an enlightened consciousness on physical matter.  And the ultimate nature of physical matter itself is still in question - doesn't string theory basically boil down to "it vibrates" ?

Sure. The POW curriculum is amazing.  Granted I went in with a fair bit of insight meditation already under my belt & some "path shifts" as we say in prag dharm.  With those things in place, it brought about a shift in identity that really scratched at least one of the core itches of samsara for me.  Since that first POW retreat in mid 2018, practice has felt a lot more like a downhill journey, a process of unwinding a lot of tensions that had been built up.  

In terms of the retreat itself, it's just very carefully designed.  The sequence of techniques & the way they are taught is tailored to the modern lay practitioner.  They seem to have it down to a science.  

Pointing out instruction was given on both of the retreats that I attended.

Did you work on concentration practice? what do you think of his claim that the full 9 stages of concentration can be completed in 2.5 days? What was the progressive curriculum?

Jinxed P:

I did at the retreat since that was on the menu.  I've also worked on the elephant path as a daily practice for multiple months at different times in my practice.  To this day, I still really suck at pure samatha practice.

I think perhaps because the instructions are so good, that teachers in the POW group can guide students into profoundly concentrated states for them to then leverage for insight, even if those students can't then replicate those states when they go practice at home.  I don't think Dr. Brown is making the claim that students who attend 1 POW retreat have permanently attained samatha.

This document has the schedule - https://app.box.com/s/z0mea82l5gfrsi1wl8qyr27krfoxcv4o
Linked to from this page - https://pointingoutway.org/retreats/levels
As the schedule describes, it essentially goes through the 4 yogas of mahamudra which are basically samatha, vipassana, one taste awareness & nondual awareness (or something like that).  

Hi folks,

Do traditional theravada sources (texts, masters) discuss complete extirpation of negative emotions at arhat stage?

You're calling Tulku Urygen's books fantastical nonsense?? Have you read them?? He is still considered after his death as the greatest dzogchen master that ever lived. Students of his have pERSONALLY told me their stories of how he could get people to non-dualistic states through his explanation of the pointing out instructions. His history is impeccable.


Author and neuroscientist Sam Harris was a student of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche. Describing the Dzogchen instruction he received, Harris wrote:

Sam, try to detach, okay?

Sure