Chapter 2 of “Buddhahood Without Meditation”
[…] about building capacity, and can also be very helpful for developing willingness. All the answers are in here, on page 34. There is a six-line guru yoga prayer, which comes from the Kagyu Ngöndro. I’ve always liked this prayer. It’s a prayer I learned back in the early 1970s, and I’ve done it a […]
Chapter 6 of “Mahayana Mind Training”
[…] from now until I die, and especially for the next year and the next month, and definitely from today until tomorrow [you notice, this is the morning prayer]two aspects of bodhicitta will never be absent from my mind. The Great Path of Awakening, Jamgön Kongtrül, Ken McLeod (Translator), p. 25 Bodhicitta is the Sanskrit […]
Chapter 8 of “Five Elements Five Dakinis”
[…] And she wasn’t Buddhist at all, but she was interested in meditation. And at one point, one day she said to me, “Can you give me a prayer, Ken?” And I said, “Well, I can, but you probably won’t want it.” She said, “Well no, what’s this prayer? What prayer do you have?” “Well […]
Chapter 9 of “The Jewel in the Lotus”
[…] will help you as it did Dervish Yak-Baba.” A third interrupts, “Nonsense! The only way is to persevere in the study and organizing of certain postures, of prayer and good works.” When they had in fact attained Deep Knowledge, the Three Dervishes found that they were powerless to help those whom they had left […]
Chapter 8 of “The Jewel in the Lotus”
[…] they made memorization easy, because you often did not have the chance to actually read this because the texts literally weren’t available to you. The Seven Section Prayer Ken: I want to turn to this text. [Unrecorded] I neglected to retitle this. The Seven Branch Prayer, the branch is a literal translation of the […]
Chapter 3 of “Pointing Out Instructions”
[…] can feel the longing. And as we let ourselves feel that longing—and some of us are very afraid to feel it—in the burnt offering in the Seven-Section Prayer, the second to last one: Uprooting patterned existence from its depths (patterned existence is samsara), I pray. Ken: What this line is describing is letting yourself […]
Chapter 4 of “Mind Training in Seven Points”
[…] Oh, well, I can do this.” And now you’re using that situation. You note at the bottom of page 21 [p. 23], you have this lovely little prayer, which is really great. If it’s better for me to be ill, I pray for the blessing of illness. If it’s better for me to recover, […]
Chapter 2 of “The Jewel in the Lotus”
[…] thing I want to do is to go through very quickly—quickly as we get through it anyway—practice of direct awareness or self-releasing. Page four, The Short Vajradhara Prayer. This prayer is very central in the Kagyu traditions, and traces one of the very important lineages of mahamudra. And then in the last four verses, […]
Chapter 5 of “Practicing the Diamond Sutra”
[…] period, or you do them alternating, it doesn’t really make much difference. And the other, a third method of building capacity and a very powerful method is prayer. Praying to develop the ability to know, because it’s not—just from what you’ve said—you know it’s not about understanding, it’s about knowing. And so letting that, […]
Chapter 5 of “Buddhahood Without Meditation”
[…] just fine. I’m not being burned in hell. Great! I’m not being roasted and scalded. Great! Or even more to the point, this is a wonderful little prayer. This is intended for people who are ill. “If it would be better for me to get better, may I get better. If it would be […]
Chapter 1 of “Releasing Emotional Reactions”
[…] how we live a life of no regret. By living each moment completely. So that’s one function that the prayers serve: as support, reminders and inspiration. Another prayer that we will do is refuge prayer. Refuge is a metaphor for orienting life towards this principle of being awake. That’s what buddha means: “awake.” And […]
Chapter 29 of “Then and Now: A Commentary on The Jewel Ornament of Liberation”
[…] We can say moral discipline, I suppose. Skipping a bit further down [Gyaltsen, page 196]: For one who keeps pure moral ethics (or moral discipline), All aspiration prayers will be accomplished. p. 196 I thought, that’s interesting. So, I’m going to throw this one out to you. How do you see that one working? […]
Chapter 8 of “Guru, Deity, Protector”
Student questions Ken: I’d like to take up any questions for a few moments. Student: In the devotional prayer [Far-reaching Cry to the Guru] the second verse from the bottom, it says, “When I practice I feel sluggish and sleepy.” That I understand. And then the next sentence is, “When I don’t practice, my […]
Chapter 6 of “Guru, Deity, Protector”
Student responses to the protector prayer Ken: This morning we are going to talk about protector. In the scheme of things actually, protector, dakini—it’s all in the same area. Now, some of you, maybe many of you, may have noticed there’s a kind of enchantment or intrigue around protector and dakini. It resonates with […]
Chapter 3 of “Practicing the Diamond Sutra”
[…] to a portion of a sutra. The portion of the sutra is known as Samantabhadra’s intentions or noble intentions. In the three year retreat, we recited a prayer every evening. That was the title Samantabhadra’s Noble Intentions. And Samantabhadra is one of the eight great bodhisattvas in the classical Mahayana. And, he’s one of […]