Mirror Reflection
By Michael Erlewine
The present moment is still there right between the past and the future, a nanosecond and yet an eternity.
Try and land your attention there if you can and rest in the present moment. Better yet, don’t try because that does not work. Relax and just let go, allow your breath to go all the way out until it comes back.
We can’t rest deep enough by just wishing or willing to because our effort itself prevents us. The type of rest we need requires no effort. And we can’t just will or require this.
The dewdrop has to slip into the shining sea naturally. How this happens we cannot know, yet one fine day it just does with the help of an authentic guru.
We don’t know how it works yet we see that it does work and from that day onward we can do it at will, i.e. allow the dewdrop to slip into the shining sea and reflect on it.
It may involve a ritual that if performed works. Otherwise, without that ritual the mind remains totally normal, dualistic and always grasping. Perform the ritual, offer a magic mudra, and the mind opens and is non-dualistic.
Anyway, here is how I experienced it. You may differ. But what does not differ is the end result, non-dual non-meditation.
And one size does not fit all. There are said to be 84,000 dharmas, at least that many different paths to take and they all work. Yet, as mentioned above, they all end up in exactly the same place, non-dual Vipassana (Insight Meditation), what we call Mahamudra or Dzogchen. And what’s the good about that?
What’s good is that in the space we are free of duality and at least in that moment, no longer generating karma. Can we tell the difference? Yes, and the difference is like night and day, IMO. OK, how do we get there?
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Not so easy. It can’t be done through effort, yet we have to do something to get there. Right now, it is still a place that does not yet exist for us; however, it is there waiting.
As mentioned, willpower is useless. And we have not learned to relax enough to just let go, yet that’s part of the secret. And here comes the tough one to consider.
We have to find an authentic dharma teacher who will accept us as a student AND we have to ourselves be ready to be guided with what are called the Pointing Out instructions as to the true nature of the mind.
If we are too shy or too busy to reach out and find an authentic dharma teacher, nothing will happen. The wheel of our dharma will not be turned. Things will stay the same. True dharma is not a hobby or just another project, but a move against the confines of Samsara, turning our back to it, and toward enlightenment.
I can well remember telling myself that I could do it without outside help, without a guru or dharma teacher. And despite my undivided attention, the best I came up with was like a patchwork quilt, where some patches were there but many were missing.
And a careful reading of MANY pith dharma texts ALL say that without the pointing-out directions from an authentic guru, it is impossible to discover on our own the true nature of the mind. And that is a showstopper.
When I finally was willing to reach out and I found an authentic guru who accepted me, that’s the ticket I needed. It still took years after that to prepare me for Mahamudra.
[Midjourney AI graphic prompted by me.]
EMAIL Michael@Erlewine.net Note: If you would like to have access to other free books, articles, and videos on these topics, here are the links: SpiritGrooves.net.
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.
