Chapter 3 of “Releasing Emotional Reactions”
[…] with what you see. All the teaching on death and impermanence, and karma, and samsara, etc. All of that motivational teaching—even some of the teaching on bodhichitta—it’s primary purpose is to encourage you to work with what you see. Courage and faith Ken: Because, as I think Pat said in reference to the exercise […]
Chapter 5 of “37 Practices of a Bodhisattva”
[…] defining. George: Ken, how is it different to exchange happiness, your own happiness for the suffering of others? How’s that different than giving up yourself as the primary concern and being concerned with the sufferings and welfare of others? One sounds like vicarious suffering, like I’m going to take on the suffering of the […]
Chapter 6 of “Then and Now: A Commentary on The Jewel Ornament of Liberation”
[…] right word is—in mind, which distorts our experience of things so we don’t experience things clearly. In particular we experience things as being something other, that’s the primary distortion. By labelling, we cease to know Ken: The two primary obscurations, or distortions, are the distortions introduced by emotional reactivity, so when you’re emotionally reactive […]
Chapter 4 of “A Trackless Path II”
[…] the body so that you can continue your own practice and evolution towards awakening in order to help beings. You follow? And thus the intention becomes of primary importance. Now, what often happens there, at least in the West, is that people think, “Well then, as long as I have the right intention then […]
Chapter 4 of “The Warrior’s Solution”
[…] it. And that becomes a sadistic, dominating, belligerent, so forth. And in life a person will typically flip from one to the other. They will form a primary identity about one, but if they encounter circumstances in which that identity can’t function they will just flip to that other pole, because it’s the same […]
Chapter 7 of “Stand-Alone Talks”
[…] of the context here is that in traditional societies nobody embarked on spiritual practice in order to get ahead in life. And yet that is probably the primary reason that most people start a meditation practice today. It is so that they are less reactive, more focused, they want to heal old wounds or […]
Chapter 5 of “A Trackless Path II”
[…] read texts by practitioners because they are generally qualitatively different than texts written by other people. Their practice is what will come through. I’m assuming that’s your primary interest. And find people who speak to you, and that’s very, very much a matter of personal predilection. In the Tibetan tradition there’s the tradition of […]
Chapter 14 of “A Trackless Path I”
[…] way. That’s how you mix clarity with awareness. Because now when the clarity arises it’s just there. And you can see the similarity of this with the primary practice. That’s how you work with it. Now, the same holds for bliss, or non-thought or combinations of those. What sometimes happens with people is that they […]
Chapter 13 of “A Trackless Path I”
[…] of different schools emerged. But they are all in the broad category of Kagyu. Kagyu has traditionally placed a great deal of emphasis on devotion as the primary means through which they develop. It isn’t to say that devotion isn’t very important in the other schools, but they like to think they have a […]
Chapter 2 of “Learning Mahamudra”
[…] arises is you. And if you start fighting against it, you’re fighting against yourself, and I have good experience from that … I always lose. [Laughs] The primary practice Ken: So, returning to practice … I’m going to give you a slightly different practice tonight which builds and combines actually everything we’ve been talking to. […]
Chapter 5 of “Learning Mahamudra”
[…] me. Joe: Not thinking about the future, past, or present. Ken: Yeah. Joe: I’m shortening it; the verbs escape me at the moment. The basic practice— Ken: Primary practice. Joe: Primary practice, yes. And the one you gave us last week, which was, “No distraction, no control, no work,” which I found the most problematic, […]
Chapter 4 of “Pointing Out Instructions”
[…] talk, are they our methods of developing attention? Ken: Exactly, yeah, that’s right. And this business of resting at the end of the out-breath or doing the primary practice, and there are many, many others, these are ways that you build a capacity in attention. Student Ken: Yeah. Developing capacity Ken: One of the frameworks […]
Chapter 9 of “Being Mahamudra”
[…] money or prestige. So, with that as a basis, then one turns to the transformation of energy. And here, as we discussed earlier in this retreat, the primary method for transforming energy is devotion. Respect and devotion form the head of meditation, To this meditator who continuously prays To the teacher who opens the […]
Chapter 3 of “Pointing Out Instructions”
[…] into the experience of being no thing, which is awakening. This is one method of transforming energy into attention. One of the reasons I gave you the primary practice yesterday is that it is another method for transforming energy into attention. Here the transformation process is a little different. You start by transforming the energy […]
Chapter 2 of “Mahayana Mind Training”
[…] to get us to the point where we actually appreciate that those are the secondary concerns, and the quality with which we experience our life is the primary concern. And that is not how we generally approach our lives. So that’s one piece of groundwork that’s very important. It clarifies motivation; it gives us […]
