Chapter 3 of “Chö: Cutting Through Demonic Obsessions”
[…] the middle of the sesshin, one of the persons at the sesshin came in for the interview with a knife. Sasaki Roshi screamed with such force and power that the individual dropped the knife, bowed and left. The senior students rushed in to find out what had happened, Sasaki Roshi told them, and they […]
Chapter 24 of “Then and Now: A Commentary on The Jewel Ornament of Liberation”
[…] frustrated by feeling powerless over not, maybe, being able to do more when I see people doing a lot of things for others, and not having the power or the resources. But I don’t know … somehow I couldn’t relate to that, of what I felt about other people doing good. I couldn’t, like, […]
Chapter 19 of “Then and Now: A Commentary on The Jewel Ornament of Liberation”
[…] a representation of a faith in a process. So it’s a combination really of a commitment and a step into faith. Why does taking refuge have such power? Ken: And why is it important to ritualize it? Julia: Because there’s no going back. Ken: Why is there no going back only if you ritualize […]
Chapter 10 of “A Trackless Path I”
[…] all we will ever know. Then the question is what are we going to do with it? And all of the other reminders, their energy and the power come from being really, really clear about that one point. So, over the next day or two one of the things I’d like you to keep […]
Chapter 7 of “A Trackless Path I”
[…] those forms because they were part of those practices. And even then they raised a few eyebrows, as you may recall. And there’s very definitely energy and power and purpose in those rituals. But in this retreat when stepping out of those traditional forms, I considered it for quite a long time. And decided […]
Chapter 4 of “Monsters under the Bed”
[…] the wrong place! Student: No, he said we were going to be enlightened tomorrow, right? Ken: Well, that’s entirely up to you. Transformation of negativity through the power of attention Ken: Now, my point in bringing those two schools up—heaven knows, now they’ll probably actually emerge as two different schools—is that changing behaviors, changing […]
Chapter 6 of “Chö: Cutting Through the Thickets of Thinking”
[…] I pay homage to my teachers who point out pristine awareness and natural awareness. I pay homage to all the yidams through whom one definitely comes into power. I pay homage to all buddhas who have completed what has to be stopped and what has to be understood. I pay homage to all the […]
Chapter 5 of “The Warrior’s Solution”
[…] You meet the child, you meet the opponent, you cut the opponent. You meet the child, you dissolve the opponent’s world. You meet the child in your power location. You ask each of the three questions. You’re right there. It’s a way of staying in the practice, in your intention. When you do it, […]
Chapter 1 of “A Trackless Path I”
[…] and protector carries the sense of expression and life. You like that? Student: Mm-hmm. Ken: Okay. You’ve all had that before. Student: Is expression and life like power? Ken: Well what the protector represents is how awakening mind manifests in activity. So that’s expression. It’s immediate, it’s direct, it doesn’t depend on the conceptual […]
Chapter 8 of “37 Practices of a Bodhisattva”
[…] could say tame actually, but to render not harmful; it doesn’t necessarily carry the connotation that subdue tends to in English, which is to bring under your power. Though I suppose tame does have that idea as well. Nava’s just given me this: to conquer and bring into subjection, that’s not it. To bring […]
Chapter 22 of “Then and Now: A Commentary on The Jewel Ornament of Liberation”
[…] anything earth-shaking, under the theory that it should be done by a trained driver on a closed course. [Laughter] But I did get some sense of the power of this technique and some sense of how it could be a tool. First of all, the whole category, what I want, is a mine field. […]
Chapter 6 of “Then and Now: A Commentary on The Jewel Ornament of Liberation”
[…] basis but are not urged on by spiritual teachers as a contributory cause, it is difficult to set out on the path towards enlightenment because of the power of inveterate propensities due to evil deeds committed repeatedly in former times. The Jewel Ornament of Liberation, Gampopa, Herbert Guenther (translator), p. 30 This isn’t quite […]
Chapter 2 of “Heart Sutra Workshop”
[…] That’s very important. Work out your own freedom Ken: But there is a little theological problem in here. If we turn to the sutra: Then, through the power of the Buddha, venerable Shariputra asked noble Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva mahasattva, “How does a son or daughter of the noble family, who wishes to practice the […]
Chapter 5 of “Ganges Mahamudra: Tilopa’s Pith Instructions to Naropa”
[…] something happens in you, something opens up. And this raises the whole question, which is a very significant one in the Chinese and Japanese traditions of self power vs. other power. Do it without any expectation Ken: Does awakening arise in you through your own efforts or does something happen to you? And that’s […]