Chapter 9 of “Mahayana Mind Training”
Q&A Student: I missed whatever comment you made on, “Give up poisoned food.” What constitutes poisoned food? Ken: What constitutes poisoned food is using the practice to do anything else other than wake up. So, we touched on this yesterday when somebody asked about doing it for someone, as if you’re going to help them. […]
Chapter 9 of “Pointing Out Instructions”
A digression on stupidity and violence Ken: Three things for tonight. One is clarifying some meditation points, particularly around emptiness, because people make all kinds of really stupid mistakes around emptiness. Unfortunately it’s not exclusive to Americans. It seems to have been going on for ages because these stupid mistakes are written up in every […]
Chapter 9 of “Buddhahood Without Meditation”
The relationship between practice and life Ken: I want to continue what I started last night. Last night I gave a relatively high level description or pointers concerning conduct, behavior, in one’s life. These are relatively traditional approaches, and as is usually the case in traditional approaches, you get very high level principles and relatively […]
Chapter 9 of “A Trackless Path II”
The use of metaphor in Buddhism Ken: Monday August 9th, A Trackless Path II, morning session. This morning I thought it might be helpful to talk about metaphors. This evening I’m going to take a detailed look at the first part of the Ganges Mahamudra, which is on page 19. And the first thing that Tilopa […]
Chapter 9 of “Guru, Deity, Protector”
Sky-Gazing Ken: Still waiting for a few people so if there are any questions? Julia Julia: I have a question about the sky-gazing. Ken: Yeah? Julia: I found it quite hard to discriminate between looking at the sky and awareness, and being sort of zoned out. Ken: Well. Clearly you discriminated between the two of […]
Chapter 9 of “Being Mahamudra”
Aspirations for Mahamudra Ken: I want to do a couple of things. I want to go over one of the other prayers in the chant booklet, and introduce you to a couple of the others, so you know why they’re there and what you might do with them. I also want to talk a little […]
Chapter 9 of “Karma: Awakening From Belief”
Let the feeling open to you Ken: Now let’s start with any questions from your practice experience this morning. Student: I had a hard time getting much to happen. Yesterday I did touch on some painful stuff having to do with ignoring and avoiding conflict. And I got there, and I’ve kind of been expecting […]
Chapter 9 of “37 Practices in Four Parts”
Anger and compassion: a discussion Student: I just wanted to go back to this thing where you said anger is a way of exiting from compassion, because that made sense to me except in the context that it was being talked about, about being angry, like at an injustice. But I put that in the […]
Chapter 9 of “37 Practices of a Bodhisattva”
Dissolving fixations Ken: Verse 22: Whatever arises in experience is your own mind. Mind itself is free of any conceptual limitations. Know that and don’t generate Subject-object fixations. 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva, Tokmé Zongpo, verse 22 Now, when I was looking at this earlier today, I thought there may be a bit of a […]
Chapter 9 of “Power and Presence”
An art exercise with pine needles Ken: So, I’ve been thinking here we are on the afternoon of the 11th, and I think we need to stir things up a bit because nobody’s feeling anything. [Laughter] It’s absolutely essential that you go away feeling that you came in touch with something, otherwise you won’t feel […]
Chapter 9 of “The Jewel in the Lotus”
Attaining deep knowledge Note: Students were not recorded. Ken: Shall I read it again? Idries Shah. Yes. I think Arcana republished these, but I know some of the Nasrudin stuff was not available for a while. Where are we? Here we are. A man, who was very easily angered, realized after many years that all […]
Chapter 8 of “A Trackless Path I”
The rhythym of practice Ken: August 26th, Morning session of A Trackless Path. Something that I know at least some of you have heard me talk about before is the rhythm of practice and understanding the rhythm of practice and how to work with the rhythm of practice. As we work and rest in experience […]
Chapter 8 of “Then and Now: A Commentary on The Jewel Ornament of Liberation”
Your most important relationship Ken: This evening we’re going to continue with this fairly thorough discussion of the teacher-student relationship. There are many, many aspects to this, many aspects which people find problematic. As I’ve said in previous talks, arguably, it’s the most important relationship in your life. As you read in the text [The […]
Chapter 8 of “Mind Training in Seven Points”
Experiencing in silence Ken: … really experiencing, perhaps for the first time, some of the emotions that we’ve suppressed and held in the body. So it feels like every cell of the body is burning up with shame, or burning up with anger, or crying with grief, or what have you. And with all of […]
Chapter 8 of “Five Elements Five Dakinis”
Guided direct awareness practice Ken: This morning, not a lot to add, I wanted to do one thing this morning and one thing this afternoon. Last night, I talked briefly about the three kinds of meditation practices: the practice of presence, or direct awareness, purification practices and energy transformation practices. Up to this point, the […]
