In this passage from Mind Training in Seven Points, Ken distills a key principle in Buddhist practice: move into the experience of whatever is arising, right now.
In a few sentences he moves across several traditions. Theravadan practice speaks of the courage to endure what arises. Mahayana reframes experience as dream-like. Vajrayana instructions are equally direct: sit and be with everything, never lose attention for a moment, and don’t try to make anything different. Mahamudra conveys the principle in three pithy points: no distraction, no control, no work.
Methods and practices can easily become the focus. Yet all of them are training the same capacity — the ability to remain present with what is actually happening, even when it is uncomfortable. The practice, again and again,is simply to move into what is arising and be there.
From Mind Training in Seven Points 2
Ken: The key principle in all Buddhist practice is to move into the experience of whatever is arising, right in the present. In the Theravadan tradition this is characterized as the courage to endure what arises. In Mahayana, we cheat. Everything's a dream. In Vajrayana, or direct awareness techniques, sit and be with everything. Never lose attention for a moment. Don't try to make anything different. The mahamudra instructions—no distraction, no control, no work—mean you're not distracted by anything. You don't try to control your experience in any way. And you don't work to make some kind of experience happen, or some kind of ability happen. You're just right in what is. It's the same right across all Buddhism. Move right into the experience and be there. The whole point of all of these different techniques is to develop that ability. Whether it's Soto Zen, Theravadan, Vipassana, visualization meditations, six yogas of Naropa, dzogchen. It all comes down to that point.