Chapter 3 of “Living Awake: Making Things Happen”
[…] a female name. It was a very chauvinistic business back then. But she’s had an interesting life including driving trucks, running a trucking firm, getting a Ph.D. in mathematics, and coming up with what I like to call the Kreitman Uncertainty Principle, which states that if you control the process you can’t control the […]
Chapter 3 of “Ideology & Wisdom”
[…] as there’s any movement out of that, okay, that is when you’re sitting–and this goes to your question about shamatha, objectless shamatha and mahamudra—objectless shamatha is basically resting in the basis of everything consciousness. And the experience there is clear and empty, clear and empty like an ice cube. Okay? As soon as there […]
Chapter 2 of “Four Immeasurables”
Reading material Ken: This is our second class in this six-session course. We are going to spend one class on each of the four immeasurables. To begin this one, I want to do a little housekeeping. In each of these classes, I’m going to try to do four things, in addition to our meditation. […]
Article
[…] choice you have, the more freedom you have. But it doesn’t work out that way. The more options you have, the more energy you have to invest in making decisions. Which shampoo? Which car? Which dress? Which restaurant? Which movie? Your energy and attention are consumed by these decisions and you have less left […]
Article
Winter, 1972. Ingrid and I, along with another couple, David and Donna, had rented a small house in the interior of British Columbia. We planned to do a month-long retreat while we waited for spring and for Kalu Rinpoche, our teacher, to visit Vancouver for the first time. It was the usual retreat mess. […]
Practice Material
Verses for the practice of the four immeasurables (or the four brahmaviharas). These verses incorporate elements from Theravada, Mahayana, and Dzogchen approaches to the four immeasurables.
Chapter 5 of “The Jewel in the Lotus”
[…] you’re right, it does generate energy. Yes, it does generate energy, That’s one of the other functions in it. [Unrecorded] It generates energy. It’s a way of resting when you’re worn out doing something else. It’s a way of resting. It’s a way of replacing the subconscious gossip that I was talking about this […]
Chapter 4 of “Karma: Awakening From Belief”
[…] camera was coming in slowly, and I saw the bell and the wooden … I had this experience of this effortlessness, this quality of just being naturally resting, and losing it, and not fighting to come back. And then having the feeling of wanting to stay with that forever. I can’t remember having that […]
Chapter 5 of “Stalking Death”
[…] element dissolves, in terms of your meditation, when the mind is still, you may have the experience of not being engaged in the six senses and just resting. That’s analogous to the dissolution of the explicit sense of self. When the mind becomes even more still, there is just a sense of I am. […]
Chapter 4 of “Living Awake: Surviving Stressful Times”
Circles of support Ken: I’ve been throwing out various principles. There is a teaching in the dzogchen tradition. The expression in Tibetan is very, very dramatic; it is impossible to capture in English but it’s, Recognize your own nature, Absolute on one point, and Have confidence and be free. These are very deep instructions. […]
Chapter 5 of “Death: Friend or Foe?”
[…] completely fixed. You have the experience of a weight, a tremendous weight, crushing your body, like you’re wedged between this weight and whatever you are lying or resting on. And as those sensations dissipate, consciousness, how you experience things, becomes unsteady. And there may be a certain amount of fear or confusion associated […]
Chapter 7 of “The Warrior’s Solution”
[…] Everyone of you, I think, recognized that you do one or more of these techniques. But when you attempted to do them volitionally you went brain dead. In other words, you couldn’t be in attention and do them. There is a taboo against that. That means that you have no say in whether the […]
Chapter 5 of “Five Elements Five Dakinis”
[…] came to me because she said she wanted to practice meditation, and because she was very subject to anxiety attacks. And so we worked on just straightforward resting in the breath meditation. And there was very steady improvement because mindfulness practice is one of the most straightforward remedies for anxiety attacks. And it works […]
Chapter 12 of “Then and Now: A Commentary on The Jewel Ornament of Liberation”
Samsara: ordinary experience Ken: This is the next class in Then and Now. We’re working principally with The Jewel Ornament of Liberation, in either of the two translations. And our focus this evening is on the chapter which Guenther translates as “the vicious state of samsara.” To review, we started off by looking at […]
Chapter 6 of “Four Immeasurables”
[…] thing to do, which is to go over the whole topic of transformation of emotions—from reactive emotions into expressions of natural awareness—and a couple of other things in connection with that. But first, I’d like to get your questions, insights, challenges from your work with joy and the lines connected with joy. You all […]