[…] by actually imagining all of this stuff and this world, we actually gain experiential knowledge in this possibility, and it paves the ground for that kind of direct knowing to arise. [Unrecorded] They’re just arisings, you know, that’s nice. The opening passage of one of my favorite books … The head cook was stirring this […]

[…] this more this evening and later on that what we’re doing here is finding a way, each of us individually, for our lives to evolve in a direction which we may be able to feel or sense but we may not yet know. And what that direction is and how that evolution takes place […]

[…] you notice a shift has taken place. Where there was that feeling of aloneness and that fear of isolation, now there’s just a knowing. An immediate and direct knowing. A knowing that there is no separation and there is nothing to be separated. And that knowing finds expression as a symbol, the deep red flower, […]

[…] way of life.” Not exactly an advance from their perspective. Not too much later, you had the Thirty Years’ War between France and Germany, which was a direct result of Martin Luther’s Reformation. It was basically a war between Catholics and Protestants, which killed almost half the population of Germany at that time. And […]

[…] are active in you. And through that you will see—not even conceptually really—you will see directly—what you do to bring these difficult situations about. And from that direct knowing, your behavior will change quite naturally. And we don’t really have to understand it in the analytical sense, for these changes to come about. I mean, […]

[…] experience what we’re talking about. Ken: This is very good, Joe, and now I’m going to ask you to do something. Go into the experience and speak directly from there. Joe: [Long pause] I can’t. Ken: Well, be thankful that I’m not a Zen teacher. I’d have a total obligation to whack you if […]

[…] figure out what works for you. But you can see how the essence here isn’t about understanding emptiness. It’s about building capacity so you can know it directly. Because all of the things that are described in this book—experience this, and experience that—those don’t come out of trying to understand. And I know this […]

[…] that go. Questions, Alex. Questions about the primary practice Alex: The objects in the space, in Ken’s lingo, they’re part of shared reality, they’re not part of direct experience, right? [Laughter] Jeff: Say more. Alex: The space and the objects are immortal. They’re not actually part of your visual field. Jeff: They’re part of […]

[…] take a set of instructions, which are very experiential actually. They’re called pointing out instructions. And even with Dakpo Tashi Namgyal, who’s a great writer, and very direct and straightforward in many respects, but he’s still very, very much embedded—as virtually everybody is in the Tibetan tradition—in this extremely scholastic, academic mode of expression. […]

Directing attention to what you want in life Ken: This evening is the twenty-second class in the Then and Now series, March 18, 2008, and we are continuing our discussion of bodhicitta or awakening mind. Before we begin I would like to say thank you to all of you who’ve been sending in […]

[…] very good. So, we’re going to do 10, 18. If you can find the section number for the transformation of the world then we’ll pick it up directly from that. Otherwise I’ll do a little riff on it. Student: I think it’s ten. Ken: It’s ten. Well, there is one in 10. Yes. There […]

Direct awareness Ken: Today we are going to the practice of the third of the three methods, ways of releasing emotional reactions, and I am going to give a bit of background first. All of the great contemplative traditions have at some point one or more practices which are extremely simple, and one […]

[…] Providence, Rhode Island, I believe. I went to one of Seung Sahn’s talks. He doesn’t really give talks. He invites questions and every question he turns to direct the student’s attention to mind. So the talk that I was at, one student said, “I’ve been thinking about going to India. Do you think this […]

[…] about here—you just know—and it’s a knowing which doesn’t depend on rational deduction, or inference or induction. Think there’s one more but I can’t remember—or analysis—it’s a direct knowing and there’s a connection that comes through that knowing. Recently there was this match at Wimbledon which it was eleven hours and the final set was— […]

[…] going into samsara. Without going anywhere, I arrive at buddhahood. I understand that no experience is good or bad. The difference between buddhas and ordinary beings is direct knowing. When I know directly exactly how mind is And the knowing is full and present, that is buddha. What one can do then can’t be described […]