[…] of attention, mind and body relax.” It’s said so simply and so clearly, I could even understand it, which is very nice. This is why I emphasize resting in the experience of breathing, because what I’m trying to do is through the instruction create the conditions so that mind joins with the experience of […]

[…] looking at here? Ann: Minutes, maybe? Ken: Okay. Anybody else? Yes, Donna. Donna: I guess I had thought, until last night and today, that doing nothing was resting in the breath. I thought I was doing nothing then. Ken: No, you’re resting in the breath. Donna: When you took that away last night, if […]

[…] and then we go home. Larry and I are going to stick around. We don’t have anything better to do, right? A review: what prevents you from resting Ken: So, the first few days, our work focused on the matter of resting. Now you’d think that resting comes naturally. How many of you found […]

[…] He always just went straight for the heart, straight for the essence. But I wasn’t able to do that. And part of me really wanted to meditate resting on the breath. Whenever I asked Rinpoche if I could just meditate resting on the breath, he would always say to me, “There’s no breath in […]

[…] with him while he took those last breaths. I will tell you that it moved me so deeply that it actually shifted my practice when I was resting with the breath, because the breath is our life. It means we’re here. It means we’re alive. We have this wonderful opportunity to practice. The thing […]

[…] and rjes thob (pron. jé tōb). Mnyam bzhag refers to the composure or equipoise—or however you want to put it—of formal practice where you’re sitting and you’re resting your attention and doing some form of practice. It very specifically refers to the experience that arises at those times. So that mnyam bzhag we call […]

[…] tight in your solar plexus, or you might notice your breathing slows down. So that can be a guide to how fast to move. Until eventually you’re resting on everything that’s in your visual field, is in your attention. And then you add into that, the space that all those objects rest in, arise […]

Being nice gets in the way Ken: Well, I suppose the short version of this morning’s talk is: You can’t wake up by being a nice person. [Laughter] Student: Does it help though? Ken: No, it doesn’t. It gets in the way. The origin of the word nice—I’m not 100 percent sure of this, […]

[…] focused then I can stay there without tilting or whatever. Ken: Yeah, I’m not talking about just being focused. I’m talking about dropping into that natural clarity—that resting mind. Student: Well yeah, resting, resting in the position. Ken: Yeah. Okay. Randye? Randye: When I do something from that place, my mind shuts up. [Ken […]

[…] up in control. Okay, I’m going to pursue this a bit with Rob. What happens in you when you’re not wrapped up in control? Rob: Very quiet, resting. Ken: I’ll ask Larry’s question, “For how long?” Rob: Indefinitely. Ken: Can I hold you to that? [Laughter] Rob: I won’t try to control it. Ken: […]

[…] concerned with making your mind totally quiet. The essence of practice in the tradition that I trained could be summed up in two sentences. Look in the resting; rest in the looking. That’s all you need to know about meditation. Look in the resting; rest in the looking. Now, earlier I talked about this […]

[…] cultivate a relationship with that. And it deepens, and we’ve talked about how that deepens through bringing in the insight aspect and uniting the seeing with the resting so that when you rest, you see, and when you see, you rest. Now this is something you work at. And Joe’s referring to another set […]

[…] plexus, where a white sphere, same size, a white sphere of light forms.  This is the element water. Rest your attention there, including the earth element, but resting principally with the water element. And think of rain, water, rivers, oceans, flow, cohesiveness, fluidity, anything that flows.  Internally, the element water manifests as blood and […]

[…] we look we see no thing. And yet, experience is vivid and present. And those two things are not contradictory. They’re both there. And when we are resting like that inevitably various thoughts arise. Thoughts along the lines of, “Everything’s empty. There is no good or bad. It’s all space.” And many, many other […]

[…] or awareness side, and one which is going to be on the compassion or appearance side. Student: Why? Ken: Well, what are two practices? Very simply, say, resting in attention, or mahamudra, or dzogchen, on the one hand, and taking and sending on the other, which is a compassion practice. That would be one example of […]