Chapter 7 of “37 Practices in Four Parts”
Student feedback on meditation Ken: What’s it like in your meditation practice when you don’t fight as much? Student: It’s more peaceful, but after a while, I went towards dullness and I got sleepy. I was trying to be a little bit more awake, but thinking about resting in silence was less conflicted or negative […]
Chapter 7 of “37 Practices of a Bodhisattva”
Dealing with extremes in experience Ken: As we’ve done in the past with these two verses, let’s take a look at the conceptual understanding and any translation points that you want to ask about. Any questions out there? Okay. Then we move on to, what was it like to reflect on this? Anybody got anything […]
Chapter 7 of “Power and Presence”
Communication and movement Jeff: What I’m hearing in a lot of in the interviews is that it’s of great interest how you apply this stuff to your life and use it in ways that help you do what you want to do. A big part of our lives is communication, right? And the studies—I can’t […]
Chapter 7 of “The Jewel in the Lotus”
Emotions don’t alter awakened compassion Note: Students were not consistently recorded. Ken: Any questions about the meditation instruction that you’ve been working with over the last little while? [Unrecorded] Okay, this is a perfect question, goes right into what I was going to talk about. You’re going to get a very long answer. Okay, Kathleen. […]
Chapter 7 of “Releasing Emotional Reactions”
Working with Emotion and Emptiness Ken: I want to do two or three things this afternoon. First, just so that you get a clear understanding of how this practice works. The fair was in full swing, and Nasrudin’s senior disciple asked whether he and his fellow-students might be allowed to visit it. “Certainly,” said Nasrudin; […]
Chapter 6 of “Monsters under the Bed”
Fighting and falling into a world of reactivity Ken: Well, as Monty Python says, “And now for something completely different.” You’ve been working very, very hard over the last three days, coming to get to know the realms, coming to get to know the realms through your physical and emotional reactions to them. Last day, […]
Chapter 6 of “Four Immeasurables”
Having a passion for life Ken: This is our sixth and last class on the four immeasurables. I only have one thing to do, which is to go over the whole topic of transformation of emotions—from reactive emotions into expressions of natural awareness—and a couple of other things in connection with that. But first, I’d […]
Chapter 6 of “A Trackless Path I”
Gazing Ken: August 24th, morning, in Des Moines, New Mexico. Any questions about technique or practice points? Leslie? Leslie: I was wondering if you could talk about the use of gaze particularly eyes closed and the different levels of gaze. Ken: Yes. When you’re working with things like the four immeasurables—those kinds of practices—the positioning […]
Chapter 6 of “Then and Now: A Commentary on The Jewel Ornament of Liberation”
Buddhism posits no beliefs Ken: I’m going to get myself into a lot of trouble tonight. Harold gave me a paper, a talk by the present Pope, which created a bit of a disturbance in the Islamic community, because he quoted a fourteenth century Byzantine emperor to the effect that one cannot use violence to […]
Chapter 6 of “Mind Training in Seven Points”
Taking and sending while walking Ken: Wobbly, yes. That’s a symptom of a long habituation of walking without attention. Others. Elizabeth. Elizabeth: [Unclear] Ken: Walking meditation is great for trying to get somewhere, isn’t it? “I’m going to get there. I’m going to get there.” Any other comments? Janneke. Janneke: [Unclear] Ken: A little easier […]
Chapter 6 of “Five Elements Five Dakinis”
The value of emptiness Ken: Today we look at void dakini. The element void. Void, may seem strange to regard it as an element. Rumor has it there is nothing to it whatsoever. In Western thought, the value of zero was not appreciated. It took the wonderfully analytic mind the people in India to understand the value […]
Chapter 6 of “Mahayana Mind Training”
Five key points of practice Ken: This morning, I want to cover the next two points: summaries and measures of proficiency. Well, we’re all familiar with summaries. We have Depak Chopra’s The Seven Laws of Spiritual Success or something like that; Steven Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. There are endless lists of […]
Chapter 6 of “Pointing Out Instructions”
Ideals split the universe in two Student: Based on your talk last night, something that caught in my mental craw was, you described the process of dualistic view, coming about when we draw a duality between the objects of our experience and the awareness of the object. My question is: isn’t it part of Buddhist […]
Chapter 6 of “The Warrior’s Solution”
A samurai story Ken: The son of a noble family in Japan had partially—because of his position in the family and partially because of his own inclinations—devoted his own time and energy to the study of the tea ceremony. As a consequence, although relatively young, he’d become quite respected as a master of the tea […]
Chapter 7 of “Chö: Cutting Through the Thickets of Thinking”
Pointing out the meaning of the mother Ken: A little more light please. Okay. Now I know where I am. Now this is going to be a very rough translation. [Laughter] What? No, that’s not on the right page. [Flipping through pages] Okay. This is called Pointing Out the Meaning of the Mother. So, to […]
