5. Body Like a Mountain, Mind Like the Sky

Chapter 5 of “A Trackless Path I

[…] the primary one is devotion, and you have prayers which go by such titles as Soothing the Pain of Faith. This isn’t an actual title of a prayer, but it’s a paraphrase of Ripping Your Heart Out With Faith, or something like that. The same happens with loving-kindness. Loving-kindness is an opening to people […]

5. Body Like a Mountain, Mind Like the Sky

3. Coming to Terms with Shame

Chapter 3 of “A Trackless Path I

[…] this to increase their luck. Trungpa’s term “spiritual materialism” applies here. Now, that is a socialization of a spiritual principle, and if you look at the dedication prayer that we use, which is actually a translation, probably my fourth or fifth translation of a prayer in Tibetan: Goodness comes from this practice now done. […]

3. Coming to Terms with Shame

1. A flexible foundation for retreat practice

Chapter 1 of “Buddhahood Without Meditation

[…] second roll down of the 6:45 hong. Ken: Is that clear? And then we do half an hour of meditation together, followed immediately by the morning ritual prayers, after which we go to breakfast. And then the next meditation period is at 9:30. So there is a gong at 9:15 or starts at 9:15 […]

1. A flexible foundation for retreat practice

1. The Essence of Chö

Chapter 1 of “Chö: Cutting Through Demonic Obsessions

[…] both of them it can’t. One of the prayers that we use in Los Angeles—one of my students asked me about this the other day—it’s a dedication prayer, and the phrase “non-residing awakening” is used, it’s a technical term. He said, “What’s non-residing awakening?” Well, all of you know about samsara, which is the […]

1. The Essence of Chö

10. Training Attention in Life

Chapter 10 of “Karma: Awakening From Belief

[…] to say that at the heart of any spiritual practice there is a way of training attention. In the Christian contemplative traditions it’s through the practice of prayer, technology that was largely lost between the 16th and 19th centuries. And there have been a number of Catholic contemplatives who’ve taken major steps in reviving […]

10. Training Attention in Life

7. Deep Internal Quiet and Dynamic Clarity

Chapter 7 of “Being Mahamudra

[…] that’s another point; that makes it a bit sad. But just referring back to Jean’s comment for a moment, you may recall a verse in the mahamudra prayer: “It doesn’t exist: even buddhas do not see it.” David? David: That’s nice, but … Ken: I love it. “That’s nice but…” [Laughter] A categorical statement […]

7. Deep Internal Quiet and Dynamic Clarity

3. What Do You Do with This Life?

Chapter 3 of “37 Practices in Four Parts

[…] stepping out into the mystery of life itself. And most mysteries aren’t particularly safe. You don’t know what’s out there. You’re entering into the dark. A refuge prayer for modern times Ken: So, some time ago I wrote a refuge prayer, which I thought was more appropriate for modern times. And it’s up on […]

3. What Do You Do with This Life?

4. Awakened Identity: Entering the Practice of Yidam

Chapter 4 of “Guru, Deity, Protector

[…] that for Charles Dodgson it was little more than a play on grammar, from a Buddhist perspective it really touches on exactly what is. In a mahamudra prayer, it says, When you look at nothing and you look and you see nothing and you understand the significance of not seeing. That’s very important. Now, […]

4. Awakened Identity: Entering the Practice of Yidam

7. Trusting Nothing Whatsoever

Chapter 7 of “Finding the Way

[…] rich. He was praying in a very loud voice. He was desperate. His neighbor who happened to be an extremely wealthy man, heard the sound of Nasrudin’s prayers coming over the wall, which separated the gardens, and he thought, “Let’s have a little joke.” So he took his bag of gold coins and threw […]

7. Trusting Nothing Whatsoever

15. Meeting Life Fully: Equanimity, Joy, and the Full Catastrophe

Chapter 15 of “A Trackless Path II

[…] over the last couple of days, I mean, it’s really, really high-level stuff. If you put this in the Catholic tradition, in terms of the study of prayer, this is the very highest level of prayer in the Catholic tradition. And because it’s so readily available to us, we often don’t appreciate just how […]

15. Meeting Life Fully: Equanimity, Joy, and the Full Catastrophe

14. Sky-Gazing: A Powerful Path to Clarity and Energy

Chapter 14 of “A Trackless Path II

[…] becomes … or in effect it becomes unrestricted. So it becomes very, very alive. Juice. Sonia? Sonia: You made reference to buddha mind and with the refuge prayer, it’s like we want what’s been coming up in practice. But when I do the sky-gazing the lines remind me of the experience of the sky-gazing. […]

14. Sky-Gazing: A Powerful Path to Clarity and Energy