What Makes Relationships Work

Q&A Session

I’m realizing that I come highly predisposed to imbalance in my relationships. My natural tendencies and things I learned, in childhood are solitude and isolation, in which a relationship lives out in my mind more than it lives out in what you’re describing as “the richness of intimacy and interaction.” I think I’ve been aware of this in other ways, but as it relates to relationships I’m looking obviously to grow past that. If you could share anything, point me in the right direction?

Two people dancing together in warm, golden light

Working With Emotions

Q&A Session

It’s really interesting through meditation, when we’re out in the world we can realize, “Oh, I’m just about to become really angry.” And you want to work on that, but it’s impossible. “Okay, I’m going to be really angry,” and you feel yourself starting to heat up. You can recognize it. That’s something you’ve talked about. But, there’s so many different levels of it. You think you’ve handled it, then all of a sudden it just comes back at you, this huge wave. And then, “Okay, I can work on it coming back.” Is there a strategy for letting some of it go? How do you steam out so that it doesn’t keep catching you?

A close-up of a clenched fist striking a red punching bag, showing tension and impact as the hand meets the surface.

Resting in Experience

Q&A Session

Is there a difference between rest and observe? The reason I ask the question, I’ve been taught to observe, watch my breath. For instance, in my mind, the way I think, I watch it, I observe it, and I don’t deal with it or experience it. I just watch it. When you say “rest,” which is the first time I’ve heard that expression in this context, that to me says immediately that I’m going to experience it. I’m going to involve myself in it in some way. So I guess my question is, what is the difference between the two?

A leopard resting on the branch of a tree, its green eyes alert against a soft background of sunlight and leaves.

How is the Medium Changing the Message?

Article

In Laws of Media, Marshall McLuhan proposed that any new technology has four effects that occur simultaneously: enhancement, obsolescence, retrieval and reversal. For instance, the car enhances the ability to move independently. It renders the horse and buggy obsolete. It brings back from the past the ability to go almost anywhere. And it creates traffic […]

Close-up of a wooden post and a red metal bar in snow with the post casting a shadow on the ground beyond the snow.

Bringing Life Into Meditation

Q&A Session

I would like to know how to bring the meditation into daily life. How, in the moment, to be able to respond rather than react? The more insecure and scared I feel, the less I remember—in the moment—to pause, and the more I respond habitually, usually not with kindness and compassion, unfortunately.

A lone wooden chair at an overlook on a mountain trail under a clear blue sky with a single white cloud.

How to Lose Your Mind

Practice Material

Although mahamudra has no genesis,
faith and devotion are its genesis.
Although mahamudra has no conditions,
excellent teachers are its conditions.
Although mahamudra has no method,
this unaffected mind is its method.
Although mahamudra has no path,
this undistracted mind is its path.
Although mahamudra has no result,
this mind free in pure being is its result.

Soap bubble painted in 1882 by M. Rapine, Alexandre-Blaise Desgoffe. From Le monde physique

Stand-Alone Talks

Series

This series of stand-alone talks by Ken McLeod offers doorways into some of the most essential aspects of spiritual practice. Each one is grounded in lived experience and shaped by Ken’s ability to draw from traditional Buddhist teachings without being limited by their formal structures. While the topics differ, a common thread runs through them: the call to relate to life directly, without relying on beliefs or practices as escape routes. Ken’s teaching is intimate, often challenging, and always aimed at waking us up—not to some idealized spiritual state, but to what is here and now.

Stand-Alone Talks

Mind Nature: Red Pill or Blue Pill?

Article

A breakthrough experience in meditation can start a profound journey into the unknown or inflate one’s sense of self and reinforce delusion. The experience of mind nature is, for almost everyone, a turning point in their practice. The utter groundlessness of experience, when you know it directly not conceptually, is profoundly meaningful, and it affects people […]

Close-up of Morpheus from The Matrix with sunglasses reflecting a red pill and a blue pill.

Karma as Evolution

Article

What is Karma? Karma is one of the most misunderstood concepts in Buddhism. The misunderstandings are unfortunate because the principle of karma is crucially important for our understanding of why we practice and what happens when we practice. The aim of this article is to correct a number of these misconceptions. The first misconception is […]

Brightly colored fractal pattern in shades of pink, orange, yellow, and black

Refuge

Article

Understanding Refuge The aim of Buddhist practice is be at peace in a life shaped by old age, illness, and death. In other words, it is to find a way to live that is free from struggles with the vicissitudes of life. A refuge is a place where one goes to be free from harm, […]

Small green boat floating on calm golden water.

Prayer Without Blind Faith

Article

We were gathered in the temple for a daylong ritual during a three-year retreat in France. The person who was leading the chants that month had a wry sense of humor. When we had all sat down and were ready for him to begin, he paused. We waited. In the silence that opened, he gently […]

Silhouette of a person standing in a beam of light between tall, dark walls.

Niguma’s Mystical Wishes

Practice Material

All beings who have taken a wrong way,
the powerful, the arrogant,
Those who could not be taught by buddhas
throughout all space and time,
May I teach each and every one of them
And lead them in an instant to buddhahood.

Oil painting of the northern lights by Anna Boberg, with shimmering green and blue aurora curtains cascading over snow-covered peaks and calm water

Then and Now: A Commentary on The Jewel Ornament of Liberation

Series

Ken McLeod unpacks the teachings of the Jewel Ornament of Liberation by Gampopa, bringing the wisdom of this classical text into a form that speaks directly to modern practitioners. While drawing primarily from Gampopa’s text, Ken also integrates insights from other great Tibetan masters as well as modern perspectives and his own experience, offering a well-rounded approach to the path of awakening. He explores key teachings of Mahayana Buddhism, including refuge, the six perfections, the bodhisattva vow,  and buddha nature,  showing how these teachings can transform daily experience and deepen spiritual practice. As Jamgön Kongtrül said, “Buddha nature is what is left when all the confusion of ordinary experience is cleared away,” pointing to the clarity and openness that emerge when we free ourselves from reactive patterns.

Then and Now: A Commentary on The Jewel Ornament of Liberation

There Is No Enemy

Series

In this retreat, Ken McLeod invites participants to explore the deep insights that arise when we shift our perspective on conflict and opposition. Drawing from personal experience, teaching stories, and practical frameworks, Ken guides participants in redefining what it means to engage with resistance and challenges in life. Through these talks, he offers tools and perspectives to navigate relationships, dissolve opposition, and cultivate compassionate action.

There Is No Enemy