Chapter 2 of “Power and Presence”
[…] isn’t being done to you. You’re actually meeting what’s arising and staying in the experience and implementing intention. So, you say the active aspects of the four immeasurables, the corruption there. Do exactly the same thing with the passive. Be present in the experience of falling out and see what happens. That makes sense […]
Chapter 9 of “Guru, Deity, Protector”
[…] really, really weird text. And I can get just enough out of it to understand that this was some very strange method of working with the four immeasurables using energy transformation techniques. Well, all we have now is the texts. Don’t have any of the instructions. You know, I’d be really interested in that. […]
Chapter 5 of “Guru, Deity, Protector”
[…] Ken: Not the same thing at all. Judith: All right. Ken: I had a group in Orange County many years ago and we were doing the four immeasurables. There was a psychotherapist in the group who was a bit of a feisty character. In the middle of [a talk on] compassion at one of […]
Chapter 4 of “Guru, Deity, Protector”
[…] trait, an ideal, an emotion, doesn’t matter what, and make that your identity. Choose an identity Ken: So one can, if you wish, take one of the immeasurables. Chenrezi for instance is compassion. You can also, if you wish, take an emotion. Hevajra is vajra anger. One could look at Vairocana as pride. Or […]
Chapter 4 of “The Unfettered Mind”
The immovable mind Ken: Today we turn to the matter of action. In case any of you have been following the progression of this retreat, it’s basically going from stillness to action. Certainly in the Taoist and the Buddhist traditions, the view is that action arises from stillness or, if you want to be mystical […]
Chapter 1 of “Guru, Deity, Protector”
[…] sangha, and then what is characteristic of the Vajrayana: guru, yidam and dakinis and protectors. And then following that, we have the ordinary refuge and the four immeasurables. So we’ll do each of those at the beginning of a session practice. It takes a little bit more, but that’s fine. And then we do […]
Chapter 4 of “Practicing the Diamond Sutra”
Due to technical issues, only the first 18 mins of this class were recorded. Ken provided a summary, appended at the end of the transcript. Mind training: suitable under any circumstances Ken: Why are you focused on a Great Path of Awakening or lojong at this point? Student: At this point, because when the slogans […]
Chapter 17 of “A Trackless Path II”
[…] is placed on developing equanimity, developing the ability to experience things without judgment. And it’s very interesting when one of my students—we were working on the four immeasurables—and he’s a stockbroker, and there was a guy in the office that everybody just ignored, nobody wanted to have anything to do with him. And of […]
Chapter 16 of “A Trackless Path II”
[…] in the chapter On Parental Mind [Dogen and Uchiyama]. Now I said that one way to look at this book is it’s a commentary on the four immeasurables. The first, not the first chapter, but once he gets into that part of it Everything You Encounter is Your Life. That’s chapter four. And Seeing […]
Chapter 15 of “A Trackless Path II”
[…] I read it, I couldn’t understand what he was really doing, and then the second time I realized it was a very high-level commentary on the four immeasurables actually, from a Zen perspective. In the first one—in the sequence of equanimity, loving-kindness, compassion and joy—the basis for equanimity is a remarkably simple statement that’s […]
Chapter 6 of “A Trackless Path II”
[…] fairly detailed description of this whole process, if you’re interested. But essentially, that’s what one is doing in practice. When you’re doing things like cultivating the four immeasurables, you’re raising the attention by significant levels, developing a relationship with those kinds of emotions. When you’re doing yidam practice, that’s jacking up the level of […]
Chapter 3 of “A Trackless Path II”
[…] if that really can happen. I don’t know. Ken: Along the same lines, Charles brought up equanimity, but we could really talk about any of the four immeasurables here. A very good way to break up the seriousness of things is to have a sense of humor. And one of the ways to bring […]
Chapter 1 of “Practicing the Diamond Sutra”
[…] I suppose that’s it.” Lets it go, which is actually a form of generosity. How many of you have heard of the four brahmaviharas or the four immeasurables? Loving kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity. The social expression of loving kindness is courtesy. Good manners is how you express loving kindness in your interaction with […]
Chapter 8 of “Buddhahood Without Meditation”
[…] ever say anything to him. Nobody would listen to anything he had to say. We were in the compassion class, and he brought this up. The four immeasurables. And I said, “So, talk to him.” And so next day he went to work, just treated this guy as an ordinary person. And the guy […]
Chapter 7 of “Chö: Cutting Through the Thickets of Thinking”
[…] all experience. Student: [Unclear] Ken: No, no. You have the visualization going on, you blast that into emptiness. Another exercise is to cultivate any of the four immeasurables and blast that into emptiness. Faith in your guru—blast that into emptiness. You blast everything into emptiness. I like this translation … Student: [Unclear] Ken: Yes. […]
