Chapter 2 of “Karma: Awakening From Belief”
Functioning without belief Ken: So we have a question on the table. “How do you function without a belief system?” I think this is very central. I’m willing to entertain ideas. How do you function? How do you know what to do? Student: Respond to what you encounter. Ken: Mm-hmm. Respond to what you encounter. […]
Chapter 2 of “Practicing the Diamond Sutra”
Opening prayer Ken: I think we’ll just start straight in and I have a few points that I’d like to talk about. So we’ll just see what happens this evening. We’ll begin with the lineage prayer, followed by the sanctuary or refuge, prayer, etc., as we did last time. May my heart turn to practice.May […]
Chapter 2 of “Finding the Way”
The four noble truths Ken: Today is entering the village. And as I was saying last night, this retreat is primarily about how to explore your own experience. The aim in Buddhism—just to review this very briefly—the first formulation Buddha gave is known as the four noble truths. First noble truth is there is suffering, […]
Chapter 2 of “Guru, Deity, Protector”
Too much salt Ken: Yesterday evening I covered more ground than I actually was planning to, so we’re changing the format and doing guru today, yidam tomorrow, protector, and that will leave Sunday to try to put it all together—or not. We’re not going to make any pretense of having an organized presentation here because […]
Chapter 2 of “The Unfettered Mind”
What is an unfettered mind? Ken: One day Wuzhao was working as the tenzo (that’s the chief cook) at a monastery in the Wutai Mountains. When the bodhisattva Manjushri suddenly appeared above the pot where he was cooking, Wuzhao beat him. Later he said, “Even if Shakyamuni Buddha were to appear above the pot, I […]
Chapter 2 of “Being Mahamudra”
Ken: This is the second talk, or rather a summary of the second talk at the mahamudra retreat. Unfortunately, the original talk did not record properly, so I am replacing the recording with this brief summary. In the approach that I’m teaching at this retreat, I’m seeking or encouraging you to ask your own questions […]
Chapter 2 of “37 Practices in Four Parts”
How to read the text Ken: [Gong] Let’s turn to the text. Needless to say, we don’t have the time to go through every verse in every detail. What Tokmé Zongpo sets out here is a path of practice, which is heavily based in the Tibetan tradition of lamrim, which is a sequence of practices, […]
Chapter 2 of “Power and Presence”
Power adjusts to feedback Ken: The general impression was that I totally confused everybody yesterday. This is October 9th. This is our first morning teaching, the first teaching on power and presence. And I did a good job confusing everybody yesterday so Jeff’s going to straighten you out. Jeff: So that exercise we did yesterday, […]
Chapter 2 of “The Jewel in the Lotus”
Don’t mess with experience Note: Students were not recorded Ken: Yesterday I talked a bit about the differences between Sutrayana and Mantrayana, Vajrayana. I omitted a small point. You may recall that I described Sutrayana as seed vehicle, which one cultivates the seeds and grow the qualities which will create the conditions for awakening. Vajrayana […]
Chapter 2 of “37 Practices of a Bodhisattva”
The logic of Buddhist lists Ken: Okay. Precious human birth, eight favorable conditions, and the ten special conditions. Any questions? Any thoughts, reflections, anything you want to look at in connection with that? Jessica? Jessica: You had mentioned in your email that you might go over the importance of the order. Ken: Of lists. Yeah. […]
Chapter 2 of “Learning Mahamudra”
Mahamudra: the stamp of emptiness Ken: This is the second class in our six-part series on mahamudra. Mahamudra is a form of meditation. It is also a system of teaching, or a tradition of a body of teaching. And the word mahamudra itself is Sanskrit. The word maha means great. The word mudra has a […]
Chapter 2 of “Chö: Cutting Through Demonic Obsessions”
A Nasrudin story Ken: One night, Mulla Nasrudin was woken up by his wife and she said, “I think there’s somebody in the garden.” Nasrudin looked out and he saw this vague whitish movement. So he went back, took out his bow and arrow, took a very careful aim, shot his arrow at what he […]
Chapter 1 of “The Warrior’s Solution”
Most people access power only through anger Ken: The retreat is called The Warrior’s Solution. Of course, this means the warrior has a problem. And you might be curious what is the warrior’s problem. The warrior’s problem is how to live without being run by power. How to live in power without being run by […]
Chapter 1 of “A Trackless Path I”
An experimental retreat Ken: A Trackless Path. August 19th, 2009 Des Moines, New Mexico or the Mandala Center, New Mexico. So this retreat is an experiment. It came out of some ideas when we were here last summer. And the original idea was to have an extended time for retreat. We originally planned a month […]
Chapter 1 of “Buddhahood Without Meditation”
The retreat schedule Ken: So, the schedule is 5:00 wake up, and the official retreat time is 8:49 right now. This is to prevent, as we had last time, somebody banging the gong at 4:45. Student: So 8:49. Ken: It’s now 8:50. Nava: It’s not an atomic clock? Student: Do you have seconds? Ken: Pardon? […]
