Chö: Cutting Through the Thickets of Thinking
In this retreat, Ken McLeod presents chö as a practice that cuts through the conceptual overlays we impose on experience—what he calls “the thickets of thinking.” Through visualization, ritual, and raw attention, he shows how to meet suffering and disturbance without relying on beliefs or emotional strategies. “I know from my own practice,” says Ken, “when you actually encounter your anger or your desire head on, that’s actually pretty frightening, and many of you have expressed the same thing.”
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1. The Two Currents in Chö Practice
Ken introduces chö with two core principles: experiencing life as it is and engaging both giving and receiving in practice. “Don’t try to make it better—just keep going.” He weaves personal anecdotes, historical background, and commentary to illuminate how chö cuts through resistance and reactive patterns. Topics covered include the origins of chö, the relationship to tonglen, the fusion of compassion and emptiness, and how the practice dramatizes the path of direct awareness.
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2. The Groundwork of Chö
Ken continues his exploration of chö with a focus on groundwork: identifying the “eight demons” as internal obstacles and establishing the motivation and refuge for practice. He unpacks visualization, lineage, and the symbolic energy of dakinis. Topics covered include the preparatory phase of chö, the role of fear and resistance, the power of ritual invitation, and the integration of refuge and bodhicitta.
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3. Purification and Presence in the Chö Ritual
Ken leads a step-by-step chö ritual, introducing the Short Vajradhara Prayer, the refuge sequence, and vivid visualizations that invoke both lineage masters and internal demons. “Everything that just makes a mess out of your life”—that’s what you invite to the ritual ground, not to banish, but to awaken. Topics covered include the field of offering, the practice of purification through Machik’s mantra, and the use of ritual elements like drum, bell, and kangling to embody direct awareness.
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4. Opening to the Sky
Ken guides practitioners through a powerful ritual known as "opening the door to the sky," a visualization sequence that transmutes the confusion of the six realms into awakened attention. “Let go of any thoughts about the past. Don’t anticipate the future. Don’t think about the present.” Building on previous sessions, this evening’s practice culminates in self-offering and dissolution into space. Topics covered include refuge, purification, the symbolism of deity visualization, and chö’s method of merging body, sound, and mind into presence.
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5. The White and Red Feasts: Offering Everything
Ken deepens the chö ritual through the white and red feasts, culminating in powerful visualizations where the practitioner offers their body as both purified elixir and raw nourishment. “They finally got a piece of you”—an act of radical generosity that transforms karmic debt into freedom. Topics covered include the continued transference practice, the poetic liturgy of self-offering, the symbolic function of dakini offerings, and the therapeutic logic behind feeding what haunts us.
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6. Guided Visualizations in Chö
Ken offers a comprehensive chö session focused on guided visualizations, blending devotional invocation, symbolic transference, and the poetic offering of form, sound, thought, and suffering. “They are totally at peace.” Through layers of ritual and imaginative practice, the disturbances of life are invited, honored, and transformed into presence. Topics covered include the three mixings, field visualization, the white and red feasts, the prayer to the lineage, and the symbolic dismemberment of the body as offering.
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7. Blasting the Demons
Ken offers a direct and visceral teaching on the four demonic obsessions: materiality, reactive emotion, excitement, and self-image. Through the sharp, sudden practice of phat!, the practitioner disrupts entrenched patterns and returns to presence. “Blast the demonic obsession into the realm of totality!” Topics covered include pointing out the mother, signs of success and severance, the belief in feelings, and how to transform even compassion and faith through the blade of emptiness.