Chapter 7 of “There Is No Enemy”
[…] of the great roshis unequivocally supported the Japanese war effort. And in particular bought into the completely specious interpretation that the Japanese army was the instrument of karma. And so what it was doing was sorting out the universe, etc. I mean, this is as specious a view of things as the crusaders were […]
Chapter 6 of “Buddhahood Without Meditation”
[…] certain order and sequence. And we have no idea whether it’s going to be disrupted by death. So on one hand we have the evolution of actions, karma, and on the other we have death can come at any time. And the only way to live in that paradox is to do things as […]
Chapter 3 of “Buddhahood Without Meditation”
[…] rain. Thunder. Rain. Thunder. Rain. That’s for the next week. Student: In that order? Student: Yeah. Ken: Wow. Student: Yeah. It’ll get warmer towards the end. Student: Karma? Student: Apparently, it’s his fault … [Laughter] Ken: A long time ago, I came to the point of view that it was just much easier to […]
Chapter 6 of “Death: Friend or Foe?”
[…] “Okay, what does this mean?” Each one of the group members took time to write their own reminder of death and impermanence or their own reminder of karma. And the group members found this to be really, really helpful to sort of take the medieval language into a way that they could understand from […]
Chapter 6 of “Chö: Cutting Through the Thickets of Thinking”
[…] disappear, and they are completely soothed. And then a fourth wave of dakinis comes out of your heart, scoops up the elixir and goes to all the karma debt collectors, everybody that you’ve ever hurt or injured, or done anything inappropriate from time without beginning. All of those little anxieties, and the big ones, […]
Chapter 5 of “Chö: Cutting Through the Thickets of Thinking”
[…] into your form and the form of all sentient beings who are around us, washing away all of the obscurations, negativity, reactivity, confusion and bewilderment of evil karma. This washes out of our body like black tar, vermin, vomit, pus and blood going down to the very center of the earth where it is […]
Chapter 3 of “Chö: Cutting Through the Thickets of Thinking”
[…] lineages. And it’s very highly regarded because in the four verses which comprise the body of the prayer are all the instructions that are key in the Karma Kagyu or in the Kagyu tradition. So, let’s read this together. Great Vajradhara, Tilo, Naro Marpa, Mila, Lord Gampopa Dusum Chenpa, totally aware Karmapa Holders of […]
Chapter 2 of “Chö: Cutting Through the Thickets of Thinking”
[…] the figures, just to have that feeling is sufficient. Below Machik are all the gods and demons of existence, including the eight classes of demons and all karma debt collectors listening and obeying attentively. So, down here, now, in this picture, you have four teachers that would normally be up here but in the […]
Chapter 5 of “Mahayana Mind Training”
[…] I was okay. Then he gets to, Illness is the broom for evil and obscurations. The broom. You know, what you use for sweeping. Since previous evil karma is stirred up when you practice the holy dharma properly, various physical illnesses come again and again. When this happens, work at being joyful when ill, […]
Chapter 4 of “Mahayana Mind Training”
[…] practicing Buddhism with just this book. Don’t need any other. The copies of the four thoughts, as they’re known—the precious human birth, death and impermanence, working with karma, and shortcomings of samsara—in the three-year retreat we worked on those very very quickly. That is, we spent eight hours a day for a week on […]
Chapter 15 of “Mind Training in Seven Points”
[…] was the local king—because she came from the region called Lab—who really called her Labkyi Drönma, The Lamp of Lab. Now, that prayer song was written by Karma Chakmé, who was an eighteenth century teacher, maybe seventeenth, in the Kagyu-Nyingma tradition. Student: He wrote some commentaries on [unclear]? Ken: He wrote a lot of […]
Chapter 8 of “Mind Training in Seven Points”
[…] Now, in the Tibetan tradition the groundwork for practice, in general, consists of four reflections which are infamous. They are: the precious human existence, death and impermanence, karma, and shortcomings of samsara. And one is encouraged to meditate on these and almost nobody does. In the way that I’ve developed curriculum in Los Angeles, […]
Chapter 37 of “Then and Now: A Commentary on The Jewel Ornament of Liberation”
[…] it’s a particular form of meditation. It is absorption in states, and specifically they’re referring to the jhanas. And these are covered way, way back in the karma chapter. The logic here is, because this is not a state, it is free from the distortion of states. Radiance is similar. The way that I […]
Chapter 25 of “Then and Now: A Commentary on The Jewel Ornament of Liberation”
[…] Buddhas will be pleased, g) one becomes useful to all sentient beings, and h) one quickly attains perfect enlightenment. p. 168 You remember that we talked about karma as the process of evolution, of how actions that we do initiate a process in us that evolves into a way of experiencing things. And the […]
Chapter 27 of “Then and Now: A Commentary on The Jewel Ornament of Liberation”
[…] all makes very nice sense. They try very hard, but it never works you know. I discovered this when I was trying to write a chapter on karma. I kept slipping into writing a theory of everything. And if you ever find yourself writing a theory of everything, you know that you are in […]