Chapter 3 of “37 Practices of a Bodhisattva”
Student questions on verses 4 to 7 Ken: So, should we turn to the text? We’re looking at three, four, five, six, and seven. The first thing I’d like to do is just to take up any questions any of you have about any lines in the text in terms of what they mean, or […]
Chapter 3 of “Power and Presence”
Expressions of power Ken: So, I walk in here with a sword and there are a bunch of giggles. Why is that? Student: I’m being flippant. Women always laugh at men carrying big swords. Ken: I’m not sure how much I want to pursue that one. Why do women laugh at men carrying big swords? […]
Chapter 3 of “Chö: Cutting Through Demonic Obsessions”
Demons or habituated patterns? Ken: Kalu Rinpoche once told me—think it may have been his teacher—there had been a problem in the area and a number of lamas had been hired to propitiate the local demons and they had gone up the mountain and banged their drums and rang their bells and chanted their songs. […]
Chapter 3 of “The Jewel in the Lotus”
Formal practice and cultivating attention mixed with activity Note: Students were not recorded. Ken: If you look at it in the four ways of working: first verse is about power, the second is about ecstasy, third is about insight, and fourth is about compassion. Everybody’s going to look at that and see if that’s of […]
Chapter 2 of “Learning from the Lives of Lineage Holders”
Niguma’s story Ken: Okay, the biographies of the Shangpa masters—a number of them anyway—have been translated and published in this book Like An Illusion. The translations are okay. They’re not great, but they’re fine and this is the translation of the same text that I studied in retreat which had the biographies. It’s the English […]
Chapter 2 of “Monsters under the Bed”
Separating from experience and then reacting to it Ken: This morning, we talked about basic meditation. As Claudia said, this means basic in the sense that it’s fundamental. Because any kind of internal work requires a certain ability or capacity for clear, stable attention. In some respects you can regard resting meditation like scales in […]
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. The […]
Chapter 2 of “Ganges Mahamudra: Tilopa’s Pith Instructions to Naropa”
Meditation questions Ken: Okay, January 12th, 2009. Ganges Mahamudra, part 2. Student: 2010. Ken: 2010? Thank you. Where did those years go? This evening we’re going to go over the six verses, which are described traditionally as the view. We can understand them really as pointing out instructions, pointing out nature of mind. This will […]
Chapter 2 of “Heart Sutra Workshop”
What is a sutra? Ken: Round two. We need to start, and I probably should have done this earlier. What is a sutra? You know, we have all of these sutras. What is a sutra? You look—oh, sorry that’s not the right one. You take a seat and your eyes meet. Question, answer, weave together. […]
Chapter 2 of “Ideology & Wisdom”
A different approach to meditation practice Ken: When we broke, we were beginning to enter into the question of why we are here, why we engage in this form of activity. One of the things that makes me very popular among Buddhist teachers, [laughter] is that every now and then when they deign to invite […]
Chapter 2 of “Living Awake: Making Things Happen”
Recap of willingness, know-how, and capacity Ken: Part two. So before we go on to part two, I’m just going to make a couple of comments. One of the things that would be good—and I should have mentioned this before the break—is in the blanks here. You might note, what are the things that get […]
Chapter 2 of “Living Awake: Money and Value”
What do you value in your life? Ken: So, the first section we did here was basically focused on getting some sense of the problem. And there are just a few things that I want to throw in before I move onto the second part. When we’re talking about money and our confusion about money—and […]
Chapter 2 of “A Trackless Path I”
The foundations of the primary practice Ken: We will have loose discussions starting each one off with some ideas usually coming from stuff that’s come up for people during the day—because in each day I’m having interviews with people—and also other questions that have come up. So this evening’s discussion is Larry’s question from this […]
Chapter 2 of “Then and Now: A Commentary on The Jewel Ornament of Liberation”
And the answer is … buddha nature Ken: This is our second class on Then and Now, and the focus is on the topic of buddha nature. I put up one question on Facebook. For those of you who are new this evening, we have a group on Facebook called ThenandNow, with no spaces. It’s […]
Chapter 2 of “Mind Training in Seven Points”
Understanding one and two Ken: One of my favorite stories is of Seung Sunim, who’s a Korean Zen teacher, giving a talk on the East Coast at a dharma center. And Seung Sunim starts off his talk with, “What is the meaning of Buddhism? If you say anything I’ll hit you. If you don’t say […]
