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

The Warrior’s Solution

Series

In The Warrior’s Solution, Ken McLeod offers a powerful map for transforming reactive patterns into presence, drawing on meditative ritual, internal inquiry, and direct experience. Each session explores a crucial step—intention, sacrifice, death, and rest—guiding practitioners to face the inner opponent, dissolve conditioned identity, and meet life with unshakeable clarity. These talks form a cohesive and practical path for living with integrity, awareness, and authentic freedom.

The Warrior's Solution

Living Awake: Who Am I?

Series

In “Who Am I?” Ken guides participants through a deep exploration of identity, challenging the assumptions that shape how we see ourselves. Through reflection, meditation, and practical tools, these sessions uncover the layers of self—conventional, functional, and ultimate. With humor and clarity, Ken helps participants navigate the question “Who am I?” to discover a more fluid and liberating way of being.

Living Awake: Who Am I?

37 Practices of a Bodhisattva

Series

This retreat offers a sustained, in-depth exploration of Tokmé Zongpo’s Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, drawing on Ken McLeod’s distinct blend of experiential insight, directness, and responsiveness to real-time student questions. The teachings weave traditional verse commentary with personal anecdotes, poetic language, and dynamic dialogue with participants. Ken repeatedly emphasizes the importance of grounding spiritual practice  in direct experience, not conceptual understanding—a point he reinforces through spontaneous interactions, challenges to the habitual tendency to analyze and try to figure things out, and illustrations drawn from everyday life.

37 Practices of a Bodhisattva

37 Practices in Four Parts

Series

In this retreat, Ken McLeod guides participants through Tokmé Zongpo’s Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva. This retreat is structured in four parts—foundations of practice, adversity and reactivity, the six perfections, and integration into daily life—each building on the last. Through personal stories, poetic language, and direct experiential instruction, he invites us to dismantle conventional thinking and meet life as it is. The result is a practical, profound exploration of compassion, attention, and the inner freedom that arises when we stop resisting experience.

37 Practices in Four Parts

Anything is Possible

Series

In this dialogue, Ken McLeod and Bill Porter explore the Heart Sutra not as a text to be understood intellectually, but as a guide for engaging the immediacy of experience. Through spontaneous exchange and audience questions, they illuminate the radical insights of emptiness, perception, and personal responsibility that form the foundation of practice. What emerges is not a set of answers, but a lived way of inquiry—rooted in attention, compassion, and the mystery of being.

Anything is Possible