Chapter 2 of “Learning Mahamudra”
[…] great for all my skill and wit, greater than any laid upon me since I seized the kingship. A maiden unseen has met us, and by her power would take from me my dear, my comely son. If thou help not, he will be taken from thy king by woman’s wiles and witchery.” Then […]
Chapter 4 of “37 Practices of a Bodhisattva”
[…] mind as skim milk is to cream. That’s just my personal feeling about the relative weight in the words. And I think awakening has a lot more power. It also includes another aspect which altruism just doesn’t embrace in English at all. And that is that this awakening mind, or this mind of awakening—which […]
Chapter 9 of “Karma: Awakening From Belief”
[…] impermanence. So you’re back in the hell realm. Which is wonderfully ironic, given that the current stated foreign policy of the U.S. is to let no other power emerge which can threaten the U.S., a classic god realm. That’s really unfortunate. Yes? Student: I’m just surprised that something so neutral evoking not thoughtful emotions […]
Chapter 9 of “Guru, Deity, Protector”
[…] Shangpa and the Jonangpa, which in Tāranātha’s time were completely suppressed because of political machinations. This was around the time when the Fifth Dalai Lama was in power. And the consequence of that is that all of the Jonangpa texts, including all of the Shangpa texts, were locked up. Nobody had access to them […]
Chapter 1 of “Finding the Way”
[…] not quoting it exactly, but the gist of it is. “Buddhism in its institutional forms provides very powerful answers to questions of the spirit. But sometimes the power of those answers overwhelms the stammering voice, which is asking the questions.” In my own experience in teaching, I have found consistently that when people take […]
Chapter 3 of “Practicing the Diamond Sutra”
[…] And you experience it and you find that, “Oh, it’s just an experience.” But as long as we are not experiencing it, it has all of this power and force. Thank you for bringing that up. Okay, now we have to take care of our daily, regular visitor Nasrudin. And the story this time […]
Chapter 6 of “Karma: Awakening From Belief”
[…] problem! Ken: Okay, just another approach. Now, when you were the interrupter, what did you experience on the first interruption? Student: Fun. Ken: Okay, anybody else? Student: Power. Ken: Power. Anybody else? Student: Control. Student: Fear. Ken: Control. Yeah. Fear? Who said that? What were you afraid of? Student: I was afraid that I […]
Chapter 2 of “Karma: Awakening From Belief”
[…] Student: There’s also just the joy of it. Ken: We want to get something. Student: Just the joy of it. Ken: Yeah, but that’s a desire for power. And if you’re doing it for that, it’s already quite nicely instilled in you. [Laughter] You’re well along on the evolutionary process here. Student: Yep. Ken: […]
Chapter 5 of “A Trackless Path II”
[…] army and navy went back to Italy and little by little—and they just left Carthage alone, they thought they’d taught Carthage a lesson—but Carthage built up its power again and started to threaten Rome. Well this didn’t sit very well with the Romans so we had the second Punic War, and they rowed across […]
Chapter 2 of “Meditating on the Four Immeasurables”
[…] believe that it isn’t part of our life. And so we go into this whole dance, which is just trying to avoid it. And this is the power of Uchiyama’s approach. We say, “Okay, this is part of my life.” And parts of us may go, “This is not the life I’ve bargained for. […]
Chapter 5 of “Stalking Death”
[…] the characteristics of the scientific worldview is that the world that science studies–there’s no knowing in it. Knowing is only in the observer. So, there’s a very powerful dichotomy. In the view of the world as experience, we have earth element, which is anything which has solidity, structure, order, firmness–that’s the earth element. In […]
Chapter 6 of “There Is No Enemy”
[…] summary of The Five Teachings of Maitreya that I translated and studied fairly closely. Gary What does “true” mean? Gary: I was just curious. When we did Power and Presence, I think you mentioned these, and the third step was, serve what is true. Ken: Yeah, I’ve changed it. Gary: I was wondering what […]
Chapter 7 of “Pointing Out Instructions”
[…] world and of ourselves and of experience. But what happens afterwards is very important. The research into near death experiences—where people have often quite profound and very powerful experiences of one sort or another—show that those experiences have no significant or measurable effect in their lives three months later, except for one class of […]
Chapter 10 of “Mind Training in Seven Points”
[…] very deeply with that. Peter: So, the anger powered his actions. Ken: I would say that he worked very hard at becoming clear so the anger didn’t power his actions. Student: [Unclear] Ken: Now, that’s a whole different thing. No problem there. And this is the same thing with Marpa. When Marpa was born […]
Chapter 37 of “Then and Now: A Commentary on The Jewel Ornament of Liberation”
[…] activities of buddha—this is very simple and also potentially misleading. And that’s what I want to try to get at here. Again we have these very, very powerful metaphors or similes—that the activities of buddha are: Like Indra, the drum, clouds, Brahma, The sun, a wish-fulfilling gem, space, and earth [is the Tagathata]. The […]
