Chapter 5 of “A Trackless Path I”
The emotional component of practice Ken: Sunday, August 23rd, A Trackless Path, Des Moines, New Mexico. The emotional component of practice is vitally important. As many of you have heard me say before, it can take different forms. The three principal forms, with which I’m familiar, are loving-kindness, compassion, and devotion. And whichever of those […]
Chapter 5 of “Then and Now: A Commentary on The Jewel Ornament of Liberation”
A sense of urgency Ken: Our last class we went through the first part of the discussion on the working basis: what we use, in a certain sense, for our spiritual practice in some state of existence. And in traditional discussion, it’s presented in terms of cycles of lives: past and future lives. And in […]
Chapter 5 of “Mind Training in Seven Points”
Speaking and walking in attention Ken: How many of you had a chance to read the footnote on torma? I read it this morning. It’s not bad. Student: [Announcements about schedule changes] Ken: The reason for these changes is that the quality of practice that all of you are contributing to is very strong. So, […]
Chapter 5 of “Five Elements Five Dakinis”
The air element Ken: We have two more dakinis with which to develop relationship: the air dakini and the void dakini. And many people find these last two, particularly the void dakini, more difficult, and that’s quite understandable. Because when you are doing the business with the spheres, you notice that there’s less and less […]
Chapter 5 of “Mahayana Mind Training”
Q&A on taking and sending practice Ken: The practice that I described this morning is the main practice of taking and sending. So I’d like to take some of our time this afternoon to take up any questions or any clarifications you are seeking in how you actually do this practice in meditation periods. So […]
Chapter 5 of “Pointing Out Instructions”
Where does attention come from? Ken: Let’s start this this evening with any questions coming out of your practice. One has to remember Nasrudin’s method of giving sermons. One time he was asked to give a sermon and he got up in front of everybody and said, “How many of you know what I’m going […]
Chapter 5 of “The Warrior’s Solution”
What is a relationship? Ken: I think it was John Kenneth Galbraith who said, “Most people, when they’re confronted with a new perspective or new information, and have a choice of accepting and assimilating it or proving why it is wrong, waste no time getting started on the proof.” Consider how much effort you put […]
Chapter 6 of “Chö: Cutting Through the Thickets of Thinking”
The chö visualization in English Ken: Unless there’s a strong vote to the negative, I won’t use the bell and drum this evening; do it all in English, going through it as you might if you’re doing it yourself. Is that okay? Student: [Unclear] Ken: Pardon? Student: [Unclear] Ken: Yeah, and without any Tibetan. Actually, […]
Chapter 5 of “Death: Friend or Foe?”
Being with the fact of impermanence Student: Since everything is constantly dying and coming into existence, second by second, it seems like for me a lot of my energy goes into ignoring that fact. And that that process of ignoring what’s actually happening uses a lot of energy. And that process seems to have a […]
Chapter 5 of “Buddhahood Without Meditation”
Opening questions Ken: Ann? Ann: Yes, Ken. Ken: What do you want tonight? Ann: What do I want? Ken: Yes! Ann: More. [Laughter] Ken: Please, sir, may I have some more. [Laughter] Okay. Yes? Student: You are looking at me? Ken: Yes. Student: What is this? Ken: Which is that? Actually … Student: Manifesting action […]
Chapter 5 of “There Is No Enemy”
A working knowledge Ken: Friday, October the 23rd, There Is No Enemy, afternoon session. Did I read the poem about the wheel? Right? Okay, I thought I hadn’t. That was last weekend when I read it to a bunch of people I was training and teaching. Duke Hwan of Khi, First in his dynasty, Sat […]
Chapter 5 of “Stalking Death”
The subject/object framework of perception Ken: Earlier, I talked about the falsity of the subject/object framework of perception. I want to return to that, to lay a foundation for the focus of the practice today. This morning, we’ll go through the stages of dying. And they are usually described in terms of the dissolution of […]
Chapter 5 of “A Trackless Path II”
Student questions Ken: A Trackless Path 2. Afternoon session. Or evening session. Okay. We’re just gonna go round and take questions. You’re first. [Laughter] Paul: What should I do when my body’s in lots of physical pain from sitting? Pain when sitting in meditation: stretching not stressing Ken: That’s an important issue. Whenever I’m asked […]
Chapter 5 of “Karma: Awakening From Belief”
Eschew Buddhist sectarianism Ken: We have a lot of ground to cover in the next two and a half days. We’ll do our best. I’m going to do a very quick digression. One of the strengths of the Tibetan tradition of Buddhism is that it inherited virtually all of the teachings of Indian Buddhism. The […]
Chapter 5 of “Practicing the Diamond Sutra”
Student experiences of reading the Diamond Sutra Ken: As Kati reminded us, this is the penultimate class. And we have a lot to do. I’ll be checking with you about a number of things. I’ll do that at the end. How many of you, if any, are reading the sutra on a daily basis? Well, […]
