Gap in Practice
By Michael Erlewine
As mentioned yesterday, the only visible or ‘glaring’ gap in dharma practice comes as we complete what are called the preliminary (dual) dharma practices and ready ourselves to be introduced to non-dual dharma practices like Mahamudra and Dzogchen.
This gap faces all dharma practitioners and can take a little to a very long time to negotiate because by ourselves, on our own, we cannot just tackle it. The introduction to the actual nature of the mind requires that we have an authentic teacher to work with. That stymies a lot of folks, either out of shyness, or lack of understanding what is required here.
And, as mentioned, we can’t just do this step on our own. And this is a huge difference, IMO, because up to that point our progress with dharma practice is pretty much up to us, how much we work with it. In fact, dharma is very much a do-it-yourself project, with this huge exception.
For this transition, we require help in the form of instruction, what is technically called the ‘pointing-out instructions” as to the true or actual nature of the mind before we can proceed. And after that, once again we are on our own and progress is up to us.
And not only is our progress with the recognition as to the actual nature of the mind in the hands of our guru, an authentic master, we are also facing an introduction to the non-dual practices and as it is written, they are ineffable, beyond words and language.
So, it’s not like we know what we are getting into. We don’t know what is ineffable and it can’t be known or studied without being first introduced to the non-dual dharma practices. We can’t do it without help at this point.
And solving that equation can take time and a different kind of effort on our part than we are used to. And the fallout of this situation is what I liken to a pool of practitioners suspended in time until they first get that instruction (pointing-out instructions) and second that instruction takes hold, and they attain the recognition of the mind’s nature. Those are two different stages.
I know that in my own case, I received the pointing-out instructions a number of times and failed to recognize the mind’s nature. It’s not like we can fake it and declare we have recognized the mind’s nature. We either have or have not had that recognition, because it’s not an understanding or even an experience. It is a recognition and the realization of the experience of ordinary mind, when we have become familiar with the nature of the mind and can work it.
Yet once had, recognition is undeniably obvious. A door opens that we did not know where it was, a portal or rabbit hole, and down it we go. And, by definition, it is like nothing we have ever experienced before in our life. It is magical or miraculous.
[Midjourney graphic prompted by me.]
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“As Bodhicitta is so precious,
May those without it now create it,
May those who have it not destroy it,
And may it ever grow and flourish.”
