Chapter 4 of “Mahayana Mind Training”
[…] take-send, exchange. And you’re exchanging your happiness for others’ suffering; or others’ suffering for your happiness. Now, this doesn’t sound like much fun. Here’s where the four immeasurables come in. Well I’ll back up a step. Rinpoche was once asked, “Why would you do this meditation?” His response was, “If, with a single breath, […]
Chapter 24 of “Then and Now: A Commentary on The Jewel Ornament of Liberation”
[…] in which all practice in the Tibetan tradition took place. In order to remind ourselves that our orientation is for all sentient beings, we cultivate the four immeasurables, which we find in the next verse. May all beings enjoy happiness and the seeds of happiness is the immeasurable of loving-kindness. May they be free […]
Chapter 3 of “Chö: Cutting Through Demonic Obsessions”
[…] based on a personal agenda. So I also like to call the higher emotions, impersonal emotions, even though they are intensely personal in another way. The four immeasurables Ken: And one could compile quite a list. But there are five which I think are important. Many of you will know four of them. They’re […]
Chapter 8 of “37 Practices of a Bodhisattva”
[…] been doing these meditations.” [Laughter] And then I did the last month on taking and sending, and I found that experience of really working with the four immeasurables changed my whole relationship with taking and sending. And because of that, almost everybody that I work with, I really encourage them, and direct them to […]
Chapter 4 of “A Trackless Path I”
[…] Janet: When doing the primary practice, is it important to conclude a session with resting in the experience of the breath as you do with the four immeasurables? And if so, why? Ken: There are practices which are primarily the practice of presence. There are practices which you can call purification, in the sense […]
Chapter 1 of “Mahayana Mind Training”
[…] transformation practice. The cultivation of loving kindness is in some respects an energy transformation practice. In the Mahayana, one usually relies more on compassion or the four immeasurables: loving kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity. In the Vajrayana there’s a whole host of energy transformation practices including most of the yidam practices, and then the […]
Chapter 12 of “A Trackless Path II”
[…] kind of rest. The whole principle of inclusive attention, which I talk about a lot, is also an implicit energy transformation practice. If you approach the four immeasurables the right way, they are an energy transformation practice. Even taking and sending, in a subtle way, is an energy transformation practice. And necessary in order […]
Chapter 7 of “Pointing Out Instructions”
[…] Because you have these very high perspectives, you know, non-duality, the great completion, even the middle way, interdependent origination. I mean you have the six perfections, four immeasurables—have you heard of any of these? Oh yes, of course, an old favorite, the noble eightfold path. But how you actually live any of these is […]
Chapter 12 of “A Trackless Path I”
[…] So there you are and you have four arms, and at some point they become alive ’cause you realize that four arms of compassion are the four immeasurables: equanimity, loving-kindness, joy and compassion. It becomes a very alive, vivid experience for you, and you’re experiencing yourself as a symbol of awakened compassion. Not substantial […]
Chapter 10 of “A Trackless Path I”
[…] bat away from you. Larry: Oh. Okay. Ken: We work—and it doesn’t really matter what the practice is. The focus of our efforts could be The Four Immeasurables. It could be that way of resting in mahamudra very open and clear for very short periods of time—we went over in the beginning. And we […]
Chapter 10 of “37 Practices in Four Parts”
Student questions Ken: Okay, so here’s our final session together. We have a few verses. They’re fairly straightforward. Straightforward as anything has been this weekend. Before we go there, let’s do some meditation practice together. Before we do any meditation practice, I’m very happy to take any questions you may have about any challenges, issues, […]
Chapter 8 of “Guru, Deity, Protector”
[…] approaches untie knots for another. In the second three-year retreat—a retreat director, Lama Tenpa, who I’ve spoken about before—when we got to the section on the four immeasurables and taking and sending, he told everybody to do another practice of the special shamatha/insight. I felt terribly sad about this. Really sad, because the practice […]
Chapter 2 of “Karma: Awakening From Belief”
[…] work. It’s Dogen’s instruction to the chief cook of the monastery. And Uchiyama gives really quite a wonderful commentary, which actually is a commentary on the four immeasurables as they’re approached in Zen practice. And at one point he says—he’s commenting on the lines—and when x, y, and z have been done, then the […]
Chapter 3 of “Buddhahood Without Meditation”
[…] I’m not going to go there this evening. I just want to focus on the last one—devotion. Devotion is an emotion, and it is, like the four immeasurables, an emotion that is not organized around a sense of self. That’s what distinguishes the four immeasurables and emotions such as devotion from the reactive emotions, […]
Chapter 2 of “Living Awake: Surviving Stressful Times”
[…] actually confused as when your saying compassion is a result, it’s not a goal. And yet it seems as it’s almost established as a goal. The Four Immeasurables are almost like goals of a Buddhist practice. Ken: Yeah, I know we have this problem. I think it’s a very substantial problem. And when I […]
