I was wondering if you could touch on impermanence, dealing with death and the fact that it’s inevitable, that we are all created from the same things, and we all end up in the same place. It becomes ever so apparent to me in my practice because I’ve learned now that I’m not my material possessions. I’m not my clothes. I’ve come to learn that I’m not my thoughts. And as I grow a little older, I’ve realized that I’m not my body. So can you talk about how this relates to who we actually are, beyond our body, thoughts and possessions?

I was wondering if you would say something about what happens in spiritual organizations. My experience has been that, there’s usually some sort of a political mechanism operating that is not spoken and that causes people to do things that are completely opposite from what they’re professing

Why do people leave a teacher? There surely are many reasons. I want to zero in on solid ones. I certainly understand if, say, there are scandals or if the student-teacher relationship somehow isn’t working out for one or both. But what I want to know is, why leave if there are no such problems? Do some students feel they’ve reached a plateau with a certain teacher?

For almost two years, my experience of practice, or life, is feeling like my heart is bleeding all day long, all the time. It doesn’t necessarily feel like a bad bleeding or a negative. It’s just very consistent. And, at first that felt like that was difficult or something I felt very conscious of. And now, it just is, but I’m relating to it in a way that doesn’t feel like I’m really resting. So I don’t quite know how to open up and rest because I feel like I’m going to lose something.

I have no trouble becoming aware of my breath, of sounds, sensations, pain in the body, wind against my face. I have a little trouble with emotions, not always, but a lot of times I identify with them. Sometimes I can step out and say, “Ah, I’m getting angry,” and I can look at it as an observer. But what I have not been able to be an observer of my thoughts. It seems like when I’m thinking and the thoughts that I think, that’s who I am.

For lay Western students with limited resources and busy lives, is the Vajrayana path recommended if one can’t do the three-year retreat, is unlikely to get to the completion or self-initiation stages, or has very limited access to his or her root Lama? One hears a lot about the higher tantras being the fastest path to enlightenment, but can one accomplish very much in this life given the limitations mentioned?

I would like to know how to bring the meditation into daily life. How to—in the moment—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 just habitually respond with whatever—usually not with kindness and compassion, unfortunately.

In my experience, the questions behind practice change over time. I started out wondering how to stop being engulfed by anger, but a consistent practice has been helpful, hell realm experiences have diminished, and life is much less difficult. So now the core question seems to revolve around how to use whatever time is left to me. What is my practice about now? Is bringing one’s changing questions and motivations into awareness what you mean by finding the edge in practice? And if so, how do I work with the edge?

I found resonance with a prayer that Ken translated and posted on the Unfettered Mind website called A Prayer Song to Mother Labkyi Drönma. Working with it seems to be a powerful way to increase feelings of devotion and openness. When I read the next to the last stanza, I come to a feeling of total blankness. This seems like a key instruction, but I don’t know what to do with it. What is pointed to by saying practitioners should combine the two rivers? What aspects of the Kadampa teaching should be joined with the mahamudra practices? Should I just sit in awareness with this blankness?

I had a very bad injury to my tailbone and sitting for the last few years has just been nearly impossible. So, I don’t sit. I kind of lounge a lot! And so sitting here tonight, this is not a pain that I should be having. I can feel that it’s probably a destructive pain rather than a pain I should be with. And it’s extremely distracting and disruptive and agitating because I feel like I shouldn’t be sitting. I finally just put a pillow back here, which helped. But it’s really different from a pain that I’m willing to allow to work through or just to be with. And I don’t really know what to do about that.

When doing bodhisattva practices such as taking and sending, and the 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva, how does one steer clear of moralism that is simplistic, fundamentalist, naïve and unrealistic?

As soon as I wake up I have a war in my head. I have severe anxiety about everything I have to do, places I have to be, people I resent, things that are bothering me, am I going to be late for this, how’s the traffic going to be? I can’t calm myself to sit and meditate, and just like happened today, at the beginning for the first few minutes, I was able to sustain my concentration on breathing for maybe 15, 20 seconds at a time. But as time went by I was thinking about everything that I need to do and what’s going on in my life and everything else. I want to really get into the habit of it, but I don’t know how to start in the mornings and get myself to sit and not worry about being late for something.

I’ve had sort of a bumpy year with a lot going on in my life and then some recent orthopedic challenges. And, what I found was I was very anxious for a while and it was very difficult for me even to sit down to practice. I had quite a bit of anxiety, so I shortened my sessions and made it through that. But most recently I’m sensing quite a bit of resistance in my practice. And I think what’s coming up for me is two things. One I’m feeling disillusioned, about where my life is, come to this point, but also some regret for past decisions. So I’m wondering if you could give me some guidance about how to make it through this particular phase of my practice?

I’ve been experimenting with different kind of forms of meditation. So following the breath is what I’ve always done, since I began meditating, but recently have been involved with some sitting with a teacher who talks about reflective meditation—actually kind of following the thoughts. And then reflecting on those afterwards. Following sounds. I sit at the beach and follow the waves. It seems actually to be helpful to do different forms—but is it?

I’m working with the primary practice off the cushion. I can do simple tasks for minutes at a time, but this doesn’t work with reading. Sometimes all sensory information moves to the background as I engage with the reading. Other times, I’ll suddenly effortlessly drop into an opening with ideas or issues in clear focus. Other sensations are in the background, but they’re dim, almost transparent. Again, I’m losing clarity and detail. Is this a capacity problem, or am I going about it wrong?