In this retreat, Ken McLeod guides participants through Tokmé Zongpo’s Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva. This retreat is structured in four parts—foundations of practice, adversity and reactivity, the six perfections, and integration into daily life—each building on the last. Through personal stories, poetic language, and direct experiential instruction, he invites us to dismantle conventional thinking and meet life as it is. The result is a practical, profound exploration of compassion, attention, and the inner freedom that arises when we stop resisting experience.

This retreat offers a sustained, in-depth exploration of Tokmé Zongpo’s Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva, drawing on Ken McLeod’s distinct blend of experiential insight, directness, and responsiveness to real-time student questions. The teachings weave traditional verse commentary with personal anecdotes, poetic language, and dynamic dialogue with participants. Ken repeatedly emphasizes the importance of grounding spiritual practice  in direct experience, not conceptual understanding—a point he reinforces through spontaneous interactions, challenges to the habitual tendency to analyze and try to figure things out, and illustrations drawn from everyday life.

Ken McLeod guides students into a profoundly personal approach to spiritual practice, emphasizing clarity, honesty, and direct experience over fixed methods or beliefs. Drawing from classical texts and contemporary insight, he presents tools and inquiries—like the Five Whys and “How can I experience this and be at peace at the same time?”—to help students stay present with whatever arisesA Trackless Path 16 – A…. “Don’t try to figure anything out. Don’t try to make anything happen. Relax, right now, and rest,” Ken says, echoing Tilopa’s six words and the heart of this pathless way.

In this unstructured retreat, Ken guides experienced meditators through the subtleties of practice and awakening. Exploring themes such as energy transformation, mahamudra, and the clarity of direct experience, it provides practical tools and profound insights to deepen meditation and navigate the complexities of life with presence and equanimity.

In this dialogue, Ken McLeod and Bill Porter explore the Heart Sutra not as a text to be understood intellectually, but as a guide for engaging the immediacy of experience. Through spontaneous exchange and audience questions, they illuminate the radical insights of emptiness, perception, and personal responsibility that form the foundation of practice. What emerges is not a set of answers, but a lived way of inquiry—rooted in attention, compassion, and the mystery of being.

In this mahamudra retreat Ken weaves together traditional texts such as Aspirations for Mahamudra and Milarepa’s Song to Lady Paldarboom with practical guidance. He explores struggle as resistance to experience, encourages reflection on essential questions about life, and introduces deep listening as a way of engaging fully with experience. He demystifies Milarepa’s advice on practicing without limits, distortion, or hesitation, emphasizes the importance of openness, clarity, and stability in cultivating awareness, and explores ground, path, and result as a framework for the unfolding of mahamudra practice as it transforms how we experience life.

Ken McLeod explores how resting in awareness changes the way we experience life. “You awaken completely when you rest and do nothing at all,” he says, inviting participants to let go of effort and meet experience as it is. Topics covered include bringing daily life into practice, trusting natural awareness, and finding freedom by resting in experience.

Ken McLeod offers a rare, in-depth exploration of chö, the Tibetan practice of “cutting through” fear, fixation, and identity. This retreat focuses on working directly with the emotional and energetic patterns that drive reactivity—what the tradition calls “demonic obsessions.” “Whatever you protect from the practice, you will become. It will take you over.” In chö, nothing is left out.

In this retreat, Ken McLeod presents chö as a practice that cuts through the conceptual overlays we impose on experience—what he calls “the thickets of thinking.” Through visualization, ritual, and raw attention, he shows how to meet suffering and disturbance without relying on beliefs or emotional strategies. “I know from my own practice,” says Ken, “when you actually encounter your anger or your desire head on, that’s actually pretty frightening, and many of you have expressed the same thing.”

Ken McLeod invites students to explore the profound and transformative themes of death, impermanence, and letting go. Through guided meditations, group discussions, and personal reflections, the retreat examines how embracing mortality can lead to a more authentic, present, and meaningful life. Each session delves into unique aspects of this journey, offering practical insights and tools for navigating life’s uncertainties and transitions.

Ken McLeod offers a fresh, experiential perspective on the eightfold path. He reframes this foundational teaching by emphasizing personal attention, clarity, and balance in practice, moving beyond rigid interpretations. Topics covered include view, intention, speech, action, effort, attention, and absorption, offering practical ways to integrate these principles into daily life. Through relatable examples and thought-provoking insights, Ken invites practitioners to explore their own direct experience and cultivate a more natural, grounded approach to the path.

In this retreat, Ken McLeod and Gail Gustafson guide participants through a series of direct, embodied inquiries into presence, perception, and personal truth. Rather than offering answers, each session invites you to explore the questions that animate your practice—and to discover the treasure of experience itself. With equal parts clarity, humor, and depth, Ken and Gail illuminate how real change begins in the space before action.

In this retreat, Ken McLeod presents the five elements—earth, water, fire, air, and void—as a mythic language that maps the formation and transformation of reactive patterns. Drawing on guided meditations, personal stories, and elemental exercises, he shows how each element reflects a distinct way reactivity plays out in experience. “That knowing quality is the fire element of mind,” he explains—pointing to the non-conceptual awareness that arises when we meet experience directly.

Ken guides an exploration of the four immeasurables—equanimity, loving-kindness, compassion, and joy—showing how these practices transform emotional reactivity into direct engagement with life. “All spiritual work is a process of transforming reactive, conditioned energy into natural free-flowing energy,” he says. Topics covered include recognizing emotional patterns, cultivating resilience through loving-kindness and compassion, distinguishing discernment from judgment, and experiencing joy as a natural expression of wholehearted living.

In this class, Ken McLeod brings Tilopa’s Ganges Mahamudra to life by translating each verse into clear practice instructions and engaging participants in penetrating inquiry. He encourages students to rest in experience just as it is, using practices like “open your heart to everything you experience” and “what experiences this?” to reveal the mind’s natural clarity. “As long as you’re trying to do something with your experience, you can’t just experience what arises,” Ken says—a reminder that even subtle effort can block what is already present.