Stubborn and stiff, I avoid hollow uncertainty.Underneath the ground quakes and I lose my footing.As long as I grasp, life seems to be stable,But it just means I'm stuck and have no way to move. When my mind is the gold dakini of earth,I see these reactions to be the phantoms they are.Everything is experience, as rich as a jewel.There is no ground … [Read more...] about Five Elements
Writings & Translations
Wake Up Call: Relationship with the Teacher
Interview with Ken McLeod, published in Mandala Magazine, June-August 2002. Reprinted with permission. Finding and forming a relationship with a teacher is one of the most difficult aspects of the spiritual path. Many of us fell into teacher-student relationships at the end of the 1960s and in the early 70s. We were fortunate, very fortunate. So … [Read more...] about Wake Up Call: Relationship with the Teacher
Three Questions
“You may have recognized your nature,But unless you are thoroughly familiar with it,You will be like an infant on a battlefield:The enemy ‘thinking’ will run all over you.” — Longchenpa, Buddhist master (1308-1363) Last year I took a short course in rock climbing — hanging from strangely shaped colored knobs bolted to a canted wall while … [Read more...] about Three Questions
Money and Meditation
A question that has long drawn my attention appears at first glance to be quite simple: what is money? I've come to the feel that it is a collective thought. Let's turn to meditation for a moment. When we sit in meditation, resting the attention with the breath, thoughts come up. Sometimes when they arise, they just disappear without disturbing the … [Read more...] about Money and Meditation
Pointers, Doors, and Openings
In these notes I want to point out the relationship between the three marks of existence (the pointers), the three doors to freedom, and the three aspects of meditative experience (the openings). The three marks (change, suffering, and non-self) can be viewed as pointers, aspects of our experience that point to three doors of understanding … [Read more...] about Pointers, Doors, and Openings
Meditation: Cultivating Attention
The term "meditation" as it is currently used in English covers a very wide range of activities, guided imagery, guided visualizations, and many practices in Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and other religious traditions. Within Buddhism itself, there is also a wide variety of methods: simple attention to the breath, contemplation of specific … [Read more...] about Meditation: Cultivating Attention