Chapter 3 of “Monsters under the Bed”
Seeing through the eyes of the monster after it eats you Ken: One day a samurai paid a visit to a Zen teacher and said, “I face death on the battlefield every time I go out. Please teach me about heaven and hell.” And the the Zen master looked at him and said, “Why would […]
Chapter 3 of “Four Immeasurables”
Loving-kindness: opening to your life Ken: So, this is our third class in this series of six on the four immeasurables. I think we’ll begin following basically the same format that we did last time. What was your experience with loving-kindness? That’s what you were working on last week, wasn’t it? Anybody have any insights, […]
Chapter 3 of “Ganges Mahamudra: Tilopa’s Pith Instructions to Naropa”
Feeling tones Ken: January 19th, 2010, I got the year right this time. Ganges Mahamudra, part 3. One question, actually 2 questions: “Ken, could you clarify what you mean by feeling textures versus emotions?” I don’t think I used the term feeling textures, did I? No. Feelings versus emotions. “You said that they were different […]
Chapter 3 of “Heart Sutra Workshop”
Transforming pain into emptiness? Student: Is everybody coming back? Ken: I always feel better when I get people to run screaming from the room. [Laughter] Which has actually happened! Yes, I once did a demo at a conference and fifty people walked out. Student: They thought you were dancing with the devil. Ken: I have […]
Chapter 3 of “Ideology & Wisdom”
Student questions Ken: What I’d like to do is to hear from you, based on either our morning’s experience together or, more generally, some of the questions you would like to have considered this afternoon. Student: How to have peace, and be at peace with the world, without having to be in a mountain cave? […]
Chapter 3 of “Learning from the Lives of Lineage Holders”
Khyungpo Naljor’s story Ken: Okay, now Khyungpo Naljor lived in about the 12th century. Student: How do you spell his name? Ken: K-H-Y-U-N-G-P-O N-A-L-J-O-R. Student: Khyungpo Naljor. Ken: Yeah, depending on the dialect it’s Khyungpo or Chyungpo—Rinpoche’s dialect was Chyungpo. Now this is the first teacher of the lineage which we have a fairly detailed […]
Chapter 3 of “Living Awake: Making Things Happen”
The Kreitman uncertainty principle Ken: Now we turn to part three of Living Awake: Making Things Happen. This section is called, Where do you go now? So, I want to take, a closer look, at what do you want to make happen. And this first section is based on a tool that was developed by […]
Chapter 3 of “Living Awake: Money and Value”
Book recommendations Ken: So this is session three of our workshop today. I didn’t have the time … actually I didn’t have the energy last week, because I was ill. There are three books that I recommend. One is Buddhist Economics. If you go on Amazon you’ll find that this is $124. However, if you […]
Chapter 3 of “A Trackless Path I”
Emotional material Student: So in doing the primary practice, is it important to keep four distinct steps as you practice? For example, when you open to the field, it feels to me like my heart just wants to open—but it’s an important thing to sort of keep those in stages? Ken: What happens to the […]
Chapter 3 of “Then and Now: A Commentary on The Jewel Ornament of Liberation”
What makes it possible for the mind to grow quiet? Ken: I’m going to rather embarrass myself and ask any of you what was the question I put up on Facebook for you to consider? Of course, now everybody’s embarrassed because nobody’s looked at it. Randye? Randye: The first was, “What makes it possible for […]
Chapter 3 of “Mind Training in Seven Points”
Applying taking and sending to all experience Ken: A couple of people haven’t come yet. So let’s start with any questions arising from your practice or from any of the teachings, if there are any questions. Yes, Mark. Mark: [Unclear] Ken: Yes. That’s right. [Laughs] And your question is? Am I going to suffocate? Mark: […]
Chapter 3 of “Five Elements Five Dakinis”
Reactions have three components Ken: Questions about the practice this morning? Everybody totally clear about earth? Transformation into balance pristine awareness. A couple of things that came up in interviews which I think is probably helpful. First thing, the sequence that we go through in the practice where we imagine the dakini, look into the […]
Chapter 3 of “Mahayana Mind Training”
Mind training groundwork Ken: This morning we talked about the groundwork. And basically this boils down to being clear about why one is doing this practice. Really clear about why you’re doing any practice. One may think that, “Okay, I get clear about this and that takes care of it.” But it doesn’t really work […]
Chapter 3 of “Pointing Out Instructions”
Advice on meditation practice Ken: I want to touch on these two topics. Let’s start with the practice that we’re doing right now, which is essentially a mahamudra approach to shamatha. Now, there’s a lot of terminology that flies around in Buddhism which I don’t think is particularly helpful—some of it’s even traditional terminology badly […]
Chapter 3 of “The Warrior’s Solution”
Ethical principles: presence Ken: This afternoon, I’m going to talk about what constitutes the ethical system connected with the warrior’s solution. This is not the usual kind of discussion that one expects or has about ethics. There isn’t a list of do’s and don’ts. More a set of principles. But the principles are nothing in […]
