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Buddhism

Nondual Freedom within Flow and Openness

You can say that awakeness itself, space itself, is breathing; space itself is thinking; space itself is becoming somebody who feels like they are doing something. But never fixating there. Flowing back into energy, back into boundless open awakeness without any ground at all; nowhere to land, no box to put it in. You may notice an exuberance, a kind of background joy, a kind of deep pleasantness that comes with just letting this flow of experience flow without ever crystallizing into any particular thing. Continuously aware of the groundless openness at the core of it, and yet, the vivid and exuberant display of all experience. 

nondual meditation

The Simplest Thing

When we’re caught up in thinking, it’s like we’ve put ourselves in a cage. The minute you drop engagement with the thought. Again, the thoughts can still happen, we’re not stopping, we’re dropping the engagement. The minute you drop the thought, you’re out of the cage! 

mahakala

The Magic of Vajrayana with Ken McLeod, Part 2 Transcript

My name is Michael Taft, your host on the podcast, and in this episode, I’m speaking, once again, with Ken McLeod. Ken McLeod began his study and practice of Buddhism in 1970 under the eminent Tibetan master Kalu Rinpoche. After completing two three-year retreats, he was appointed as resident teacher for Kalu Rinpoche Center in Los Angeles, where he developed innovative approaches to teaching and translation. After his teacher’s death in 1989, Ken established Unfettered Mind, a place for those whose path lies outside established institutions. His many published works include Wake Up To Your Life, A Trackless Path, and his brand new book entitled The Magic Of Vajrayana. And now without further ado, I give you part two of the episode called “The Magic of Vajrayana with Ken McLeod.”

The Magic of Vajrayana with Ken McLeod Transcript

My name is Michael Taft, your host on the podcast, and in this episode, I’m speaking once again with Ken MacLeod. Ken MacLeod began his study and practice of Buddhism in 1970 under the eminent Tibetan master Kalu Rinpoche. After completing two three-year retreats, he was appointed as resident teacher for Kalu Rinpoche’s Center in Los Angeles, where he developed innovative approaches to teaching and translation. After his teacher’s death in 1989, Ken established Unfettered Mind, a place for those whose path lies outside established institutions. His many published works include Wake Up To Your Life, A Trackless Path, and his brand new book entitled The Magic of Vajrayana. And now I give you the episode of Deconstructing Yourself that I call “The Magic of Vajrayana with Ken MacLeod.”

noticing

What Is Noticing?

It’s this radiant, vibrant display in awareness rippling with color, light, sound, feeling, energy and yet also oddly unfindable or unlocatable and even what knows it is unknown. Now when I sound this bell. What’s the question? The question is what knows this sound?

Reverse Meditation with Andrew Holecek

Join host Michael Taft as he speaks with meditation teacher and author Andrew Holecek about “reverse meditation,” the practice of using difficult experiences as the focus of our meditation, how this moves us through our perceived limits and allows us to recognize the perfection of the moment, and allows us to make any situation a profound and excellent meditation.

Avalokiteshvara

The Wisdom and Compassion of Avalokiteshvara

ow breathing in, take the image of Avalokiteshvara into your heart. Breathe Avalokiteshvara directly into your own heart where the image plugs in and begins to radiate powerfully from your own heart. So that the energy and wisdom and compassion of Avalokiteshvara, which translates as the one who hears the cries of the world, starts beaming out from your being.

Henry Shukman

Transcript of Talking about Zen Koans, with Henry Shukman

Henry Shukman is a teacher in the Sanbo Zen lineage and is the Guiding Teacher of Mountain Cloud Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Henry is an award-winning poet and author of several books, including One Blade of Grass, which details his spiritual journey and is excellent, I might add. Henry’s struggles with traumatic experiences as a youth, combined with a spontaneous awakening experience at age 19, paved the way for him to develop a well-rounded approach to spirituality and meditation, one that includes love for self and the world as its foundation. And now without further ado, I give you the episode that I call, “Talking about Zen Koans, with Henry Shukman.” 

Everything

Everything in It’s Right Place Meditation

Allowing each in-breath to be nurturing, each out-breath to return the mind to space, absolutely vast, open, uncongealed space. If it wants to re-congeal, okay, it can happen on the in-breath with the nurturing quality, but then, on the out-breath, again it just falls open to become the sky without any effort at all, zero effort to do that.

tree earth sky

The Tree of Earth and Sky 

And so Earth energy is rising up spreading out through the trunk and branches and leaves of the tree.  This ancient, grounded, humble energy that is paradoxically both humble and noble. And the branches of the tree spread out into the vast, open sky, and the brilliant warm, healing, sacred light of the Sun is soaked up by all the leaves of the tree and runs down the branches and into the trunk.